South American 
Impressions 



zs$ (^ 



■ia+Y j Y~" 







Bi^^S* 






BY GEORGE AND FREDERICK W. WOODRUFF 



South American 
Impressions 



BEING A SERIES OF NEWSPAPER ARTICLES 



WRITTEN BY 



GEORGE AND FREDERICK W. WOODRUFF 



SPECIAL CORRESPONDENTS 



OF 



THE JOLIET SUNDAY HERALD 



> 



w^ 



Copyright 1910 

BY ARCHIBALD S. LECKIE 

Joliet, Illinois. 




CCU278933 



THE CARIBBEAN SEA 



And Something of the History of South America. 



Colon, Panama, August, 1910. — For 
many years after the discovery of 
America it was thought that the West 
Indies and South America were far 
more valuable than North America, 
and as a result the energies of all the 
great nations of Europe were put 
forth in an effort to obtain a foothold 
in this part of the world. However, at 
this time Spain was the predominating 
power in the world and as she had been 
the pioneer in the discovery and pre- 
liminary exploration of the West In- 
dies, she naturally was the first to 
hear of the great riches of the west 
coast of South America. 

At this time, practically all of the 
West Indies were under the Spanish 
flag and Castillian expeditions were 
fitted out for the purpose of crossing 
the Isthmus of Panama and proceed- 
ing as far south as Peru. This they 
did, finding there not only gold and 
treasure, but also the wonderful civil- 
ization of the Incas. The Inca empire 
was one of the greatest semi-savage 
civilizations the world had ever seen, 
and the arts and agriculture of these 
people were a great revelation to the 
Spaniards. 

Instead of accepting the friendship 
and hospitality of the Incas, the 
Spaniards, true to their ideas of con- 
quest and colonization proceeded to 
exterminate this great people and fi- 
nally succeeded in reducing the whole 
west coast of South America to a 
state of servitude. The same methods 
were eventually employed in other 
parts of the continent and the whole 
of South America and the greater part 
of the West Indies fell under the ab- 



solute sway of Spain. 

In Brazil, however, Spanish power 
was early wrested away by Portugal 
but her colonial policy was not unlike 
that of Spain and at the beginning of 
the 19th century all of South America 
was under the harsh rule of Spain and 
Portugal, the resources of the land 
were exploited for the sole benefit of 
the mother countries and the people 
were largely reduced to a state of 
serfdom. 

Shortly after the year 1800, discon- 
tent had grown to open dissention and 
for the next twenty years the conti- 
nent was torn by revolutions. Finally, 
there appeared in Venezuela a wealthy 
young man of education and attain- 
ments, Simon Bolivar by name, destin- 
ed to be known as "The Liberator." 
After several years of strife, he suc- 
ceeded in driving the Spanish power 
out of Venezuela and Columbia and 
established the independence of those 
countries. 

He then marched to Equador and 
freed that country and then proceed- 
ed on to Peru, where, after desperate 
fighting he succeeded in establishing 
independence. One of his generals 
then proceeded to Bolivia and liberat- 
ed that nation from Spanish rule. 

In the meantime, the Argentine 
states and Chili had thrown off the 
yoke of Spain and shortly afterward a 
bloodless revolution made Paraguay 
an independent state and a treaty be- 
tween Buenos Ayres and Brazil estab- 
lished Uraguay as a republic. Thus 
by 1830, all of South America was un- 
der a Republican form of government, 
except the three colonies of British, 



Dutch and French Guiana and the em- olution. The population has not been 
pire of Brazil which afterwards in the made up of the elements that have made 
year 1889, became a republic. North America, but has been composed 







^ c ^ Q^J^j 






However, from 1830, until recent of the descendants of Spaniards, In* 
years, the history of South America dians, and some Negroes and the feel- 
has been the history of continual rev- ings of unrest, cruelty and degrada- 



tion that have characterized the 
Spaniard everywhere have come prom- 
inently forward in South America., 
and until the end of the nineteenth 
century revolution has followed revo- 
lution and South America has been 
drenched with blood and development 
and progress have been throttled. 

Of late years, European and Ameri- 
can immigration has had a beneficial 
effect on the various republics and the 
governments of those to the south 
particularly, have become much more 
stable and agriculture and trade have 
gone forward with great bounds. In 
the north, conditions are still very un- 
settled and the wonderful natural re- 
sources of the country are consequent- 
ly at the present time, practically un- 
touched. 

The approach to the Caribbean 
Sea or "American Mediterranean," 
from New York is heralded by the 
appearance on either side of the ship 
of the numerous Bahama Islands 
which are scattered along for a con- 
siderable distance before the wind- 
ward passage is reached where the 
traveler gets his first sight of the 
greater Antilles, the beautiful moun- 
tainous shores of Cuba lying to the 
right, and in the very far distance the 
hazy outline of Haiti appearing to the 
left. 

Ahead is the warm blue Carib- 
bean shut in on the north by the 
greater Antilles, guarded at the east 
by the lesser Antilles, and flanked 
on the south and west by South 
America and Central America. 

Cuba, Porto Rico and Santo Do- 
mingo are well known to the readers 
of the Herald, and their attractive cli- 
mate, semi-tropical vegetation and 
odd customs have brought them many 
American visitors since the war times 
of 1898. 

Jamaica, which lies south of Cuba, 
in the course of the ships from New 
York to Panama, is not so well known 
to Americans. It belongs to Great 
Britain and is a most attractive win- 
ter resort. Rising somewhat back 
from the shore are the beautiful Blue 
Mountains and the climate and 
quaintness of the country appeal 
strongly to the visitor. Odd build- 
ings, good roads, cleanliness, strange 
customs and dusky faces greet the 
newcomer on all sides, and make of 



Jamaica a most pleasant little isl- 
and to visit. Many miles to the east 
lie those wonderful little islands 
known as the lesser Antilles. Among 
them are found the familiar names of 
Antigua, Guadeloupe, Dominica, Mar- 
tinique, Barbadoes and Grenada. 

These are the islands which a cen- 
tury or so ago were looked upon as 
the richest in the world and over 
which wars were waged and around 
which great struggles took place. 

From these little islands came such 
men as Alexander Hamilton and Du- 
mas and here was born in the shad- 
ow of the world famous tropical gar- 
den of Martinique, the Empress Jo- 
sephine. Here George Washington 
visited and from these islands emin- 
ated the highest western civilization 
of those times. Every inch of land 
was then cultivated and the great 
sugar estates brought huge riches to 
their owners in England and else- 
where. 

Now everything is changed. The 
wonderful climate is still there, the 
tropical vegetation still covers the 
valleys and mountains, but the garden 
of Martinique is overgrown, the cane 
fields have turned back into jungle, 
the great English homes are crumb- 
ling, the people are poor, and civ- 
ilization does not eminate from there 
any more. And all of this because the 
slaves were freed and because the 
United States placed a tariff on sug- 
ar. It is doubtless a fact that if 
these islands belonged to the United 
States and their products were en- 
tered free of duty, much of the old 
time prosperity would return and 
the superstitions and voodooism of the 
negroes would be replaced by the civ- 
ilization and modern methods of 
America. 

To the south of the Caribbean lie 
Venezuela and Columbia, both vast 
countries of tremendous natural re- 
sources, but possessing governments 
that are a disgrace to the civilized 
world. Venezuela is drained by the 
great Orinoco river, and contains 
great mineral wealth in its moun- 
tains and great opportunities for ag- 
ricultural development on its plains and 
plateaus. Its chief city is Caracas, 
located among the mountains twenty- 
two miles from the sea, and reached 
by a wonderful scenic railroad. Car- 



acas was destroyed by an earthquake 
early in the last century, and has been 
rebuilt along modern lines and is now 
a beautiful and attractive city. How- 
ever, it is the only city of any im- 
portance in all Venezuela. 

The Republic of Columbia is a rich 
country which is cursed with a cor- 
rupt government and wretched sani- 
tary condition. Its mineral wealth is 
enormous, but as yet not thoroughly 
developed, and its opportunities for 
agriculture are great on its plains or 
"llanos." 

Bogota is the chief city and only 
place of any great importance in the 
country. It is beautifulty located 
among the mountains and has a pleas- 
ant climate. It is fairly well con- 
structed and has a number of modern 
conveniences, among which is a street 
railroad operated by Americans. Owing 
to the Columbians' hatred of the Uni- 
ted States, since Panama became inde- 
pendent, they will not ride on the 
American street car system, and at 
present are boycotting anything and 
everything American. 
■ The Caribbean is bounded on the 
west by Mexico, which is, of course, 
well known to Americans, and by the 
Central American republics, which are 
never free from revolution long enough 
for any great progress to be made in 
them. As the ship from New York 
sails south from Jamaica through a 
climate not so warm in August as 
New York or Chicago, it approaches 
the isthmus of Panama and the blue 
seas, flying fish and great southern 
cross just above the horizon all tell the 
voyager that he is in southern seas. 
Gradually the outline of the coast of 
Panama appears and the blue waters 
blend into a band of light green next 
to the beach and the palm trees and 
jungle of the tropics appear on the 
sides and tops of the cliffs. 

Rounding a sharp point the harbor 
of Colon stretches out in front and 
the stars and stripes are seen floating 
over the entrance to the great Panama 
canal. 

THE PANAMA CANAL. 

Panama, August, 1910. — When the 
good ship Colon pulled up to the 
wharf at Cristobal, Panama, our 
eyes fell upon a palm-lined ave- 
nue, on both sides of which had been 
constructed houses which looked like 



huge bird cages, and which had been 
built by the United States govern- 
ment to house the men who are work- 
ing on the great Panama canal. 
These buildings are all elevated on 
stilts and each story is surrounded by 
a balcony, and the whole house is 
screened in with wire mosquito net- 
ting. 

All of these peculiar arrangements 
have been made in order to help main- 
tain a sanitary condition in the isth- 
mus, and all of the buildings and 
streets in Cristobal and its neighbor- 




ROUTE OF PANAMA CANAL. 



ing city of Colon show the strictest 
attention to cleanliness and artistic 
care. 

Looking upon the hillside above the 
town of Cristobal over towards the 
entrance to the canal, we saw the 
great statue of DeLesseps in front 
of the building known as DeLessep's 
Palace. This sight recalls to the 
mind of every visitor the history of 
Count Ferdinand DeLesseps, who 
came to the isthmus in 1882 expect- 
ing to dig the canal. 

DeLesseps had finished the task of 
building the Suez Canal between the 
Mediterranean and the Red Seas, thus 
shortening the route to the Orient 



by the thousands of miles around 
Africa, and he was eager to attempt 
the conquest of the greatest barrier 
to trade in the new world, the Isthmus 
of Panama. He figured that he could 
dig the canal in a period of eight 




A BLAST ON THE CANAL. 

years at a cost of §214,000,000, and 
knowing of- the tremendous financial 
success of the Suez canal, which by 
the way cost $100,000,000, every 
working man and peasant in France 
invested his life savings in the shares 
of the French Panama Canal Com- 
pany. 

This was the beginning of one of 
the most stupendous business failures 
in all history. It is true that DeLes- 
seps had dug the Sue--; Canal through 
the low level sands of the Isthmus of 
Suez, but a canal cut through the 
solid rock of the Isthmus of Panama 
was a different proposition. 

The story of the ten years occupa- 
tion of Panama by the French is one 
round of horrors. The engineering 
difficulties were far greater than De- 
Lesseps had dreamed of. Further- 
more, millions of dollars worth of 
French machines were strewn along 
the banks of the canai without ever 
having been set up for use, the only 



object of buying the machines being 
to plunder the company's treasury. 

The men began to die by the thous- 
ands of yellow fever, plague and 
smallpox, and Panama became the 
worst center of disease and death in 
the whole world. At the end of the 
ten years', the French company went 
down with a crash chat was felt in 
almost every family in France. It 
was found that about $300,000,000 
had been spent and the canal was less 
than two-fifths finished. The officers 
and important men in the company 
had stolen over a hundred million dol- 
lars and wasted almost that much 
more, and the poor people of France 
had lost their savings of a life time. 
The French had failed, and the Isth- 
mus of Panama remained a barrier 
to the trade of the world, to be con- 
quered by greater men of a greater 
nation. 

It will be recalled by the readers 
of the Herald that in 1903, President 
Roosevelt took active steps leading 
toward the construction of a canal at 
Panama by the United States govern- 
ment. A short time thereafter, the 
Republic of Panama having become 
an independent nation, the United 
States entered into an arrangement 
permitting the construction of thv 
waterway. All of the rights and prop- 
erty of the old French canal com- 
pany were purchased for forty mil- 
lion dollars, and ten million dollars 
was paid to Panama for permission 
for the United States to govern a 
strip of land fifty miles long and ten 
miles wide across the isthmus be- 
tween the cities of Colon and Para- 
ma. This strip is known as the Can- 
al Zone, and is under the absolute 
control of the United States govern- 
ment. 

The first great problem to be met 
was that of disease. Since the days 
of Columbus the Isthmus of Panama 
had been afflicted with yellow f?v"r 
and plague and it meant certain fail- 
ure to begin work on the canal un- 
til such conditions were changed. 

Colonel W. C. Gorgas was ma.U- 
chief sanitary officer of the Cai: 1 
Zone, with instructions to clean it up 
and make it a fit place for white men 
to live in. Now Colonel Gorgas was 
the man who stamped out yellow fev- 
er in Havana, Cuba, through the ex- 



termination of the mosquitos, and he 
knew his business thoroughly. For 
two years he worked with a large 
force of men killing the rats that car- 
ry the plague, draining the swamps, 
and killing the mosquitos with crude 
oil. The streets were paved with 
brick and good water and drainage 
systems installed, and today the 
death rate in the Canal Zone is low- 
er than in New York City. 

As we wandered about Cristobal 
waiting for a train to take us out 



mer resorts. 

August being one of the months in 
the rainy season we experienced fre- 
quent hard showers and ocasional se- 
vere thunder storms. However, these 
rains lasted but a short time, and we 
soon became used to them. Although 
the nights are very comfortable be- 
cause they are so cool, nevertheless 
they are very damp, and everything 
not placed out of reach of the out- 
door air will be found to be wet in 
the morning. 




THE GATUN LOCKS. 



across the Canal Zone, we met many 
of the mosquito oil men. It is their 
duty to see that all tall grass is cut 
and burned and that every drop of 
stagnant water on the isthmus is 
covered with mosquito oil. As we 
passed by a little Panamanian hut, 
the interior of which had been made 
germ proof by Uncle Sam's wall pap- 
er brigade, one of the natives threw a 
bucket of water out of the side win- 
dow and before the water had hardly 
touched the ground, the oil men had 
fixed it so that no mosquito could live 
near it. 

We had expected to find Panama, 
exceedingly warm, but were surprised 
to find that in the middle of the day 
it was not as warm as in New York, 
and that at night it was always as 
cool as at one of our American sum- 



The little profile of the canal 
which accompanies this article will 
give a fair idea of the manner in 
which it is being constructed. Start- 
ing at the left of the profile from the 
Atlantic Ocean, the channel of the 
canal is dug at sea level for a dis- 
tance of about eight miles to Gatun, 
where the great dam is being built 
to catch the water of the Chagres 
river and form Gatun Lake. This 
dam is a huge structure almost a 
half mile thick at its base, and four 
hundred feet thick at the surface of 
the water. It is a mile and a half in 
length and rises to a height of over 
one hundred feet above the sea level. 

In the center of the dam will be a 
spillway lined with concrete, and so 
arranged with gates that the height 
of the water in the lake may be rog- 



lualed. The water level in the lake 
uLove this dam will be eighty-five 
feet above the level of the canal be- 
low the dam, and it is so arranged 
that the largest ocean liners will be 
lifted this eighty- five feet by means 
of a flight of the three largest locks 
ever constructed. These locks are 
each one thousand feet long and one 
hundred and ten feet wide, and it 
is estimated that four million fiv.e 
hundred thousand barrels of Portland 
cement will be used in the construc- 
tion of these and the locks at the 
other end of the canal. It is the 
intention of the government engi- 
neers to develop the water pow- 
er and operate the big locks by elec- 
tric power generated from water tur- 
bines in the dam, and this electric 
power will also be used to tow the 
ships in and out of the locks. 

Standing on Gatun dam and looking 
on up the canal, one will see a broad 
artificial lake which will flood an 
area of over one hundred and fifty 
square miles and through which the 
largest ships may sail at full speed 
along a course marked by buoys for 
a distance of twenty-four miles to 
Bas Obispo. This lake has not been 
filled as yet, but it is estimated that 
it will take at least a year to fill it 
after the spillway in the Gatun dam 
has been closed. 

There are many natives living In 
the valleys which are to be flooded, 
and although the government is us- 
ing every effort to warn them, it is 
certain that some of them will be 
drowned when the waters of the lake 
begin to rise. 

From Bas Obispo to Pedro Mi- 
guel is what is known as the great 
Culebra cut. It was this cut of nine 
miles through the solid rock and 
sliding earth that finished the old 
French Canal- company, and has also 
presented the greatest difficulties to 
our own engineers, but with all its 
difficulties and, notwithstanding the 
fact that such a cut has never before 
been attempted in the history of the 
world, every day sees the channel 
sink deeper and deeper into the heart 
of the mountain. 

As one stands in the center of this 
great channel which is being hewn 
straight through the backbone of the 
Isthmus, and looks up on either side 
at the miles of earth and rock which 



have been cut and blasted away, and 
as one's eyes are lowered to the base 
of the cut where the powerful steam 
shovels are eating their way toward 
the level of Gatun Lake, a great 
charge of several tons of dynamite 
sets the earth to swaying and the 
conviction grows strong that in 1915 
American ships will be sailing through 
Culebra cut on their way to the Pa- 
cific. 

At Pedro Miguel, which as we have 
said, is the Pacific end of the Cule- 
bra cut, the ships will be lowered a 
distance of thirty feet to another 
small artificial lake about a mile and 
a half in length. This lake is about 
fifty-five feet above the level of the 
Pacific Ocean, and when the ship has 
sailed the length of it to Miraflores, 
it again passes through a flight of 
two locks and is lowered into a sea 
level channel through which it sails 
for a distance of eight miles and 
emerges into the calm, deep waters of 
the Pacific Ocean. 

It will have traveled a distance of 
about fifty miles from the deep wa- 
ters of the Atlantic to the deep 
waters of the Pacific, and the time 
required to pass through the canal 
will have been about twelve hours. 
Today it takes a ship about two 
months to sail from Colon to Pana- 
ma around South America. In 1915 it 
can do the same thing in twelve 
hours. 

Having finally gotten on board the 
train at Cristobal, we started on an 
inspection tour of the canal. For 
eight miles the train ran through the 
most beautiful tropical vegetation and 
jungles, surrounded on all sides . by 
great swamps and huge palms. The 
tops of the trees were filled with tan- 
gled vines and clinging all over their 
branches were orchids, which grow as 
parasites. 

Shortly before arriving at Gatun 
we crossed the famous black swamp 
and our train hardly moved as we 
went across this dangerous part of 
the route. Here it was that the bot- 
tom seemed to fall out when the en- 
gineers were constructing the rail- 
road, and thousands of tons of scrap 
iron and waste material were dumped 
into the quick sands before the rail- 
road could be constructed. Several 
times during recent years the road- 
bed has disappeared at this point, 



and it has been necessary to recon- 
struct it. 

Arriving at Gatun a scene of great 
activity met our eyes. The huge dam 
which blocks up the end of the val- 
ley is three-quarters completed, and 
the great white concrete locks are 
fully half done. On every side is 
heard the rush of steam and the 
groans of great steam shovels and 
cranes, and down in the channel men 
are as thick as ants. 

The view from the Gatun railroad 
station shows plainly the genius and 
power of the great American nation, 
for no such sight has ever been wit- 



a number of these workmen we 
swapped Chinese yarns and told each 
other of many experiences f hat had 
happened to us over there and of a 
great many that hadn't. 

About 34,000 of the workmen are 
negroes from the West Indies, to- 
gether with a few Spanish and Ital- 
ian laborers. These men are all paid 
in Panama silver, and are therefore 
known as "silver men." The United 
States government furnishes sanitary 
dwellings free of charge to the men. 
These houses are in most cases well 
furnished, and it is not uncommon to 
find a piano in the living room 01 ihe 




THE CULEBRA CUT. 



nessed on earth before. 

After leaving Gatun and traveling 
on across the canal zone, stops were 
made at the various construction 
camps, each one of which resembles a 
little town. Living in these towns 
are the men who are digging the 
canal. Abou L 5,500 of these men are 
Americans, who are paid in American 
gold, and are consequently known as 
"gold men." We were interested to 
learn that a large part of the Amer- 
ican army that fought at Pckin, Chi- 
na, in 1900, came down to Panama, 
and are working on the canal. With 



higher salaried men. Wherever a 
piano is seen, there will be an elec- 
tric wire running to it, and an elec- 
tric light burning inside of it. This 
is done to°keep the piano dry, as the 
climate is so damp that a piano 
would be ruined in a short time if 
some heat were not applied to it at 
all times. Each house also has a "dry 
room," which is fitted up with elec- 
tric lights and used to store clothes 
and other articles which must be pro- 
tected from the heavy damp air of 
the tropics. 

Even in these clean, dry govern- 



ment houses it is so damp that need- 
les rust over night, and a pair ot 
shoes which have not been worn for 
two days will become mouldy. 

All through this country between 
Gatun and Bas Obispo, which will 
form the bed of the great Gatun 
Lake, we found the timber cleared 
away from what will be the main 
channel, and the hills excavated so 
that this section of the canal is prac- 
tically completed. 

The life in the camps scattered 
through this part of the zone is very 
picturesque. In one of the camps we 
witnessed a "gentlemen's boxing 
match" of some twenty or thirty odd 
rounds, between the champion of the 
Canal zone and the "Peruvian Kid", 
who evidently hailed from Peru. After 
countless rounds the "Kid" became 
tired and lay down on the floor for 
a rest. We spoke to the zone cham- 
pion about a possible fight with 
Johnson, but he said he was down here 
to dig the ditch and that fighting was 
a mere pastime for him. 

At another camp we witnessed a 
wedding ceremony at which the bride 
appeared in need of a shave. Not- 
withstanding her flowing silks and fin- 
ery, she could be recognized as one 
of the section foremen. Good nature 
and good fellowship prevails gener- 
ally on the Big Ditch, and probably 
never before was such a high class 
body of men assembled on a construc- 
tion job. 

Traveling on toward Panama we 
arrived at Bas Obispo, and entered 
the nine mile area known as Culebra 
Cut. Here indeed is seen the engi- 
neering prowess of a great nation 
which has cut a gash hundreds of 
feet wide through a mountain range. 

The great Culebra Cut is about 
three-quarters finished and shows 
that nature is not a match for hu- 
man enterprise. 

Coming out of the cut and passing 
the locks at Pedro Miguel and Mira- 
flores, which are similar to the locks 
at Gatun, we reached the Pacific sea 
level section of the canal, which is 
now practically completed, and soon 
found ourselves in the railway station 
at the city of Panama. 

We were surprised to learn that at 
Panama the sun rises over the Pa- 
cific ocean and sets over the land. It 
is equally strange to learn that Colon, 



at the Atlantic end of the canal, is 
forty miles west of Panama, at the 
Pacific end. The reason for both of 
these peculiar facts is the large bend 
in the Isthmus at this point. The Isth- 
mus runs East and West at this place 
instead of North and South. 

Leaving the railroad station we went 
up to the Tivoli Hotel, which was 
built by the United States govern- 
ment, at a cost of $450,000. It is as 
modern and as convenient as a hotel 
can be made, and one can live as 
comfortably in it as any place in the 
world. 

We were having dinner one evening 
with the manager of the Tivoli and 
a young lady from New York, who had 
evidently never been far from Broad- 
way. She asked the manager if he 
kept a cow, and he replied that he did 
not, as he purchased canned milk 
from London. The young lady looked 
over the table and seeing nice, fresh 
honey, remarked, "That honey is so 
delightfully fresh that the hotel most 
certainly must keep a bee." 

The city of Panama is an attractive 
old Spanish place, with several typi- 
cal plazas, which are the center of life, 
and with many old and interesting 
cathedrals and works of ancient ar- 
chitectural design. Among these is the 
famous flat arch, which has stood for 
many generations, and about which an 
interesting tale is narrated. It seems 
that many years ago in Panama there 
was a builder who claimed he would 
construct an arch that was not curv- 
ed. After much labor, the props were 
taken away, and to the builder's dis- 
may the arch fell with a crash. 

Once more he set about his work, 
and after a number of years, com- 
pleted his second great arch, but when 
the props were taken away the arch 
again fell. He studied on this problem 
until he became an old man and then 
he built his third arch. When the 
props were being taken away he sta- 
tioned himself directly underneath the 
arch, determined not to live to bear 
the odium of another failure, but this 
time failure did not come, and the flat 
arch of Panama still stands an ex- 
ample of a lost architectural art. 
When the lock type of canal was be- 
ing talked about the argument was 
advanced that the locks were liable 
to be destroyed some day by earth- 
quake. 



9 



The engineers who favored the lock 
type of canal advanced the theory that 
earthquakes were unknown in Panama 
and proved their contention by point- 
ing out the flat arch, which could not 
have existed all these years if it had 
ever been shaken by an earthquake. 

Passing through the funny little 
streets of Panama with their odd 
buildings, dark skinned population, 
odd little horses and carriages and 
bright Spanish colors, we were at- 
tracted by the crowd around the Pan- 
ama National Lottery, where $7,500 
is distributed every Sunday morning. 
From there we drove out to the cock- 
ing main, where the Spaniards shout 
themselves hoarse over their chicken 
fights, and then returned to the at- 
tractive plazas, where we listened to 



the fin d music of the Panamanian 
band and witnessed the gay parade of 
Panama's fashionable set. 

For many years the life of Panama 
has been characteristic of the Spanish 
race, but since the great canal has 
been started, things have awakened 
and these are indeed palmy days. 

Looking back over this great canal 
undertaking stretching from the At- 
lantic to the Pacific ocean, one is con- 
vinced that this is a task that could 
have been accomplished by no other 
nation but the United States of 
America, and when the first ship sails 
through the finished canal, January 1, 
1915, the entire world will congratu- 
late the American people on having 
a complished the greatest wonder of 
all the wonders of the world. 



THE PRESIDENT OF PANAMA. 



Panama, August, 1910. — As represen- 
tatives of the Herald we have today en- 
joyed a very pleasant interview with 
Carlos A. Mendoza, president of the 
Republic of Panama. 

The readers of the Herald will recall 
the fact that prior to the year of 
1903, Panama was a province of the 
Republic of Columbia, but that it had 
several times engaged in revolution 
and that it had always been badly gov- 
erned by the Columbians. In 1903 the 
United States Government had offered 
Columbia ten million dollars for the 
right to govern a strip of country bor- 
dering the Panama Canal and for per- 
mission to build the canal. 

The Columbian government was con- 
trolled by a party of selfish politicians 
at Bogota, who finally rejected the 
proposed treaty with the United 
States, thereby breaking the pledges 
which they had made to our govern- 
ment. This action was embarrassing 
to the United States and was also a 
crushing blow to the interests of Pana- 
ma. Thereupon, some of the leading 
citizens of Panama, with the full 



knowledge of the American adminis- 
tration, declared Panama a free and 
independent republic. 

This republic was immediately rec- 
ognized by the United States and the 
presence of American gun boats and 
marines prevented Columbia from of- 
fering any resistance. This was the 
first instance of the formation of a 
free Central American state practically 
without bloodshed, but one man being 
killed throughout the whole affair. 

A constitution was soon adopted and 
a provisional government put in power 
and then a treaty was negotiated with 
the United States, by which permis- 
sion to build the canal was granted, 
the right to govern a strip of land on 
each side of the canal was conceded 
and the power to enforce law, order 
and sanitation was conferred upon out- 
government. In return the United 
States paid the new republic ten mil- 
lion dollars and agreed to protect it 
as a free nation and guarantee its in 
dependence. 

It Mali be seen, therefore, that the 
United States is vitally interested in 



the political situation in Panama and 
tl at its influence is paramount there. 

At the present time Panamanian 
national politics are claiming the at- 
tention of the American officials on 
the Isthmus and at Washington. When 
the republic was formed Manuel Am 
odor Guerrero was appointed president 
for four years. He belonged to the 
Conservative or Clerical party. At the 
time of his election Carlos A. Mendoza. 
whose father had been a senator 
in the Columbian congress and later 
on had been governor of Panama, was 
a leading figure in the administration 
and had been in charge of the finances 
of the new republic. 

The new president offered to make 
Mr. Mendoza secretary of finance, but 
he declined the portfolio as the presi- 
dent belonged to the Conservative par- 
ty and Mendoza was the leader of the 
Liberal party and he did not wish to 
c mbarrass the administration. 

Mr. Mendoza therefore continued at 
his profession as a lawyer and repre- 
sented the United Fruit Company, a 
large American corporation in connec- 
tion with its business in Panama. 

In 1908, the Liberal party joined with 
a part of the Conservative party under 
the name of the Fusion party and Mr. 
Obaldia was nominated for president. 
Mr. Mendoza came into public notice 
again at this time, taking charge of the 
campaign and electing Obaldia presi- 
dent. This was the first time in Cen- 
tral American history that the admin- 
istration candidate had been defeated 
by the votes of the people and not by 
a revolution. 

Mendoza was appointed as 2nd vice 
president of the republic, and soon af- 
ter, by reason of the death of the 1st 
vice president, he became the ranking 
official of the government after Presi- 
dent Obaldia. Early in the present 
year Mr. Obaldia also died and since 
that time Mendoza has been president 
defacto. 

The president of Panama is a fine 
looking man of mulatto colored skin 
and prepossessing appearance. He 
greets the visitor after the manner of 
a high class American business man. 
and after inviting him to sit down by 
his side on a luxurious sofa in his 
private office, and having offered him 
a cigarette, proceeds in very good 
English to extend him a cordial wel- 
come to Panama. 

Mendoza is a shrewd man, possess- 



ing all of the appearances of the high 
class American business man or poli- 
tician, and he understands American 
methods and ideals very thoroughly. 
He is very friendly to Americans. 

Discussing the political situation Mr. 
Mendoza said that his government, of 
course, owed its existence to the friend- 
ship of the United States, and there- 
fore the tie binding the countries to- 
gether was a strong one and had led 
the Columbia 1 government and people 
t;> ft.fcl a b.tt-r enmity toward bo in 
countries. He- .said that the Columbian 
government Iv.u'i not ye", recognized the 
index endenc3 or Panama and that the 
Columbians still appointed men to rep- 
resent Panama in the Columbian con- 
gress. Notwithstanding these facts, 
Mr. Mendoza states that his govern- 
ment entertains no malice toward the 
old mother country and while adher- 
ing strictly to the policies and wishes 
of the United States, will nevertheless 
always treat Columbia fairly and hon- 
estly. 

Mr. Mendoza wishes to say through 
the Herald that Panama is a country 
of stupendous resources, containing 
thousands of acres of magnificent tim- 
ber and tropical agricultural land, 
great mineral deposits and consider- 
able trade opportunities and that his 
administration is inclined to throw 
the door wide open to Americans. 

He recognizes the fact that this great 
store house of wealth lying so near 
American markets is practically un- 
touched as yet and he intends to en- 
courage American capitalists to de- 
velop the country. 

Mr, Mendoza states that his govern- 
ment is willing to grant necessary 
concessions to reputable American 
business men who wish to build rail- 
roads, cut timber, develop the agricul- 
tural lands or take contracts for the 
improvement of the country. He 
wishes it known that the present 
healthy state of his nation makes it 
possible for Americans to reside there 
in perfect safety and it is the policy of 
his administration to encourage a high 
standard of living and to spread edu- 
cation throughout the land. He is par- 
ticularly anxious to have Americans 
furnish capital, teachers and men of 
practical experience who will instruct 
the natives in regard to farming meth- 
ods. 

Mr. Mendoza guarantees that taxes 



will not be excessive and that no hin- 
drance will ever be put in the way of 
honest American enterprise in his 
country. He thinks that the greatest 
opportunity at the present time lies in 
the development of the natural re- 
sources of the country, but he also 
thinks that an ever -increasing trade 
can be built up which will undoubtedly 
grow much larger as the wealth of the 
people increases. 

He believes as do others who have 
looked into the matter that the Amer- 
ican salesman does not sufficiently 
study the needs of the people he is at- 




P RESIDENT CARLOS MENDOZA 
of the Republic of Panama, who 
was interviewed by the Herald, 
and who said that he wanted Ameri- 
cans to come to his land. 



tempting to sell to, and that the 
American producer is careless about 
packing and shipping his goods. These 
things certainly hurt American trade 
all over the world. 

Mr. Mendoza states that he will urge 
the assembly when they meet in the 



fall to change the land laws, making 
them more favorable to Americans 
and guarantees that laws Will be pass- 
ed from time to time as they may be- 
come necessary protecting the interest 
of foreign capital. 

In conclusion, he said: "You may 
tell your friends in the United States 
that Mendoza is a good friend of the 
Americans." 

In September, there will be an ef- 
fort made to supercede President 
Mendoza. The chief charge against 
him seems to be that his skin is not 
white and some of the citizens of Pan- 
ama are inclined to use this against 
him. 

It is anticipated that the officials of 
the United States will also be against 
him, as it is reported that they do not 
think it is to the interest of the Uni- 
ted States for Panama to have a pres- 
ident who is quite so liberal and who 
is inclined to go ahead quite so fast. 
Furthermore, it is said that the ele- 
ment of color also arises here, as it is 
thought that it will not help Ameri- 
can influence in South America to 
have the United States officials sup- 
port a man whose color is not white. 

The death of Obaldia left the presi- 
dency vacant until 1912 and in the 
meantime, the executive head of the 
nation is the first vice president which 
position Mendoza now holds. However 
the first, second and third vice presi- 
dents are elected every two years by 
the assembly and not by the votes of 
the people. Consequently the assem- 
bly will elect a new first vice presi- 
dent in September and it is said that 
the opposition together with the influ- 
ence of the United States officials on 
the isthmus will be against Mendoza 
and probably in favor of Samuel 
Lewis, now secretary of foreign rela- 
tions. 

On the other hand Mendoza is a 
shrewd and able man and he stands 
an excellent chance of being returned 
to power for the next two years by be- 
ing elected first vice president when 
the assembly meets in September. 



THE JUNGLES AND THE 
GUAYAQUIL. 



Guayaquil, Ecuador, August, 1910.— 
Sailing out of the Bay of Panama on 



out 1 way south, we passed the ruined 
towers and walls of the old city of 
Panama, which was destroyed in the 
year 1671 by Henry Morgan, one of the 
world's most famous pirates. A few 
years before this date, Morgan had 
sacked the Central American city of 
Porto Bello and flushed with success, 
he had sent an insolent note to th? 
Governor of Panama saying that he 
v/ould soon return and treat Panama 
as he had treated her sister city. True 
to his word he appeared on the Car- 
ibbean side of the Isthmus of Panama 
with thirty-seven ships and two thous- 
and men, and having marched across 
the Isthmus under great difficulties, 
be was met by a large force of Span- 
iards. These Spaniards had collect- 
ed over two thousand wild bulls and 
these bulls were turned loose and driv- 
en toward the pirates, the Spaniards 
expecting to thereby disrupt their 
ranks. However, the buccaneers man- 
aged to turn these bulls back on the 
Spaniards and such confusion was 
caused that Morgan finally captured 
the city which was looted and destroy- 
ed. 

The new city of Panama which was 
soon commenced was built at some dis- 
tance from the old. Today, the ruins 
of old Panama show all the marks of 
the destruction and conflagration dealt 
out by Morgan's men. 

Sailing on into the peaceful Pacific, 
we approached the shores of Colum- 
bia, where we had determined to learn 
something of the real tropical jungles. 
At about five o'clock at night we start- 
ed on a launch up a river leading to 
the interior. The launch was owned 
by the officials of an American lum- 
ber company which has organized a 
little camp far up in the jungle and 
two of the representatives of the com- 
pany acted as our guides. We steam- 
ed up a beautiful broad river until 
about eleven o'clock 'it night at which 
time the tide was running so strong 
against us that our launch could not 
make any headway and we were com- 
pelled to anchor until three o'clock in 
the morning. Pending the resumption 
of operations, we all wrapped up in 
blankets and went to sleep on the floor 
of the boat. At three o'clock the tide 
changed and we then went on up the 
river at high speed arriving at the 
lumber camp in a couple of hours. At 
about six o'clock we all woke up and 
crawled out on the bank of the river 



and a beautiful sight lay before our 
eyes. The blue winding river had now 
become quite narrow and was hemmed 
in on both sides by a great embank- 
ment of trees, giant palms, tangled 
vines, and beautiful flowers. Large 
green birds were flying back and forth 
and all the stories of jungle life were 
indeed surpassed by the reality. 

The camp consisted of a collection 
of huts and tents inhabited mostly 
by natives and negroes from Jamaica. 
The natives are very dark-colored, be- 
ing a combination of Indian, Spanish, 
and negro blood, in which the Indian 
element seems to predominate. They 
are extremely primitive in their cus- 
toms, but appear to be bright and 
some of them are fairly industrious. 
After having breakfast, which con- 
sisted mostly of Armour & Co's. can- 
ned food, we started on tip the river 
ir the launch and for fifteen mile? 
witnessed the most gorgeous pano- 
rama of tropical vegetation and life 
that can be imagined. 

The tropics are indeed teeming with 
life, the jungle being filled with game, 
the trees abounding with rare birds, 
and the water swarming with odd fish. 
On all sides is a great chattering and 
rustle of life. We finally landed and 
struck off into the heart of the forest. 
Here were trees of the rarest species 
and strangest shapes and vegetation. 
The underbrush was one solid mass of 
tangled palms and vines and the trees 
were so lofty and so thick that the 
sun did not penetrate to where we 
were but we seemed to be surrounded 
by a sort of greenish twilight. Trees 
ever forty feet in circumference ex- 
tended up through the canopy of veg- 
etation above which made it impossi- 
ble for us to see their tops. There 
were many strange trees which we had 
heard of but never seen, such as ma- 
hogany, coco-bolo, and lignum vi- 
tae, which is so hard that a spike can- 
not be driven into it unless a hole is 
first drilled in the wood. 

In these countries lignum vitae is 
used for foundations for buildings as 
any other species of wood is soon at- 
tacked by the giant ants and eaten 
by them. And speaking of ants, we 
saw them as large as caterpillars, and 
all about us through the forest were 
bright red land crabs and very large 
green lizards. Above our heads among 
the trees was a drove of small mon- 
keys which kept up a great racket as 



13 



we went along. It would, indeed, be 
hard for a man to starve to death in 
this part of the world for the foresL 
abounds with food and drink. Cocoa- 
nuts, bananas, and scores of other 
tropical fruits grow wild while occas- 
ionally we came across specimens 
ot the great water vine which grows 
from the ground high up in the trees 
and which it is only necessary to cut 
with a knife in order to get drinking 
water. 

The parasites that hang from the 
trees appear very beautiful to north- 
ern eyes, among these being different 
colored mosses and millions upon mil- 
lions of brilliant orchids. After having 
spent a pleasant and instructive hour 
or so in the forest, we worked our 
way back toward the river cutting our 



and on the wall of one of them we 
were surprised to find posted up a 
picture taken from the front of the 
Saturday Evening Post. Here we 
went back inland for a ways and 
found that the forest gave place to a 
large plain which was covered with a 
tall coarse grass of the palm variety 
which grew as* high as our heads. 

Returning toward the native village, 
we persuaded one of the native boys 
to climb a cocoanut tree for us and 
the way he went up that slender tree 
trunk made it very evident that he 
would be the undisputed champion in 
an American greased pole contest. 
When he arrived at the top of the 
tree he struck the great clusters of 
cocoanuts with his knife and they 
came crashing down to the earth 




Sunset View of Inland River in the Jungles. 



way through the creepers and under- 
brush with machetes, which are huge 
knives carried by all the natives. 

Again boarding our boat we drop- 
ped down the river a few miles and 
landed at a small native village con- 
sisting of huts built of bamboo, mud, 
and palms. The walls of these huts 
were loosely woven so that the air 
could circulate freely, but from every 
other standpoint they were indeed un- 
sanitary. Each hut seemed to have 
from six to twelve natives living in it, 



where we gathered up a dozen of them 
and put them on our boat. Continuing 
clown the fairy-land-like river, our na- 
tive boatman showed his dexterity 
with a machete. He not only cut the 
heavy bark or shucks off of those 
cocoanuts, but he also cut the hard 
shell off and presented us each with 
a pure white cocoanut, the surface 
of which did not show a scratch. We 
then cut holes in them and drank the 
cocoanut milk and ate native fruit 
until our appetites were somewhat 



spoiled for the dinner which awaited 
us at the camp. 

At about 6 o'clock in the evening 
the tide turned down stream, and we 
started for the ocean. As the sun was 
sinking we were again impressed with 
the abundance of life on all sides. Not 
only were the trees filled With beauti- 
fully plumaged birds but as the dusk 
settled down over the water we could 
see the long diverging ripples caused 
by the alligators as they swam just 
under the surface of the river, and 
there were literally hundreds of these 
alligators' in the water, some of which 
We shot at with our revolvers. As it 
became darker, the prow of our boat 
stirred up the phosphorus in the water 




Loading Bananas. 



so that the effect was very attractive 
and several times schools of porpois- 
es jumped out of the water and seem- 
ed to be racing the boat. Finally, we 
reached the ocean and slept- all night 
in the bottom of the launch and the 
next morning boarded the steamship, 
Aysen bound for the western ports of 
South America. 

Many stories have been told of the 
hardships connected with travel on the 
west coast of South America, but we 
have not found these stories to be 
true. The Aysen is one of the clean- 
est, roomiest, and best arranged ships 
we have ever had the pleasure of 
traveling on. The service is good and 
the Spanish cooking is not at all dis- 
tasteful, everything being very palat- 
able except the meats. These are very 
tough and make the average Amer- 
ican resolve never again to abuse the 
American meat packers. 

After having been out two or three 



days, we crossed the Equator and 
our surprise was great, indeed, when 
we found it necessary to sleep under 
heavy blankets. This was due to the 
fact that our ship was traveling in 
the antarctic current which is very 
cold and which runs from the antarctic 
regions up the west coast of South 
America as far north as the Equator. 

Our first stop was to be Guayaquil, 
Equador and shortly before arriving 
there, the sea on the port side of the 
ship was lashed into foam by thousands 
of porpoises which kept jumping out 
of the water. A little further along a 
large number of whales were en- 
countered. They swam quite close to 
the ship and could be discovered by 
the little fountains they created when 
they spouted the water. 

Proceeding up the Guayas river the 
ship passed many of the floating is- 
lands which are written about by 
travelers. These little islands are made 
up of debris covered with green vege- 
tation and float up and down the river 
with the tide. 

Guayaquil is not an unattractive, 
city, and is built entirely of wood but 
possesses the worst reputation for di- 
sease of any city in the western hem- 
isphere. Its very unsanitary condi- 
tion is its worst drawback as other- 
wise it is quite a live place and at 
night is brilliantly illuminated with 
electric lights and makes a very pret- 
ty appearance viewed from the river. 

In this port every precaution is tak- 
en against the possibility of bringing 
disease on board the ship. Every piece 
of-.*aggage is disinfected before leav- 
ing the dock and is marked with large 
-letters, "Disinfectado." It is worthy 
of note that the ships in the west 
coast trade are each provided with a 
fumigating system which carries sul- 
phur fumes to every part of the ship 
and each country requires a thorough 
■ fumigation of any ship arriving from 
•' one of the other countries. 
% This necessitates a pretty constant 
use of sulphur in order to comply with 
"the various shipping rules. Each pas- 
senger, received at Guayaquil was care- 
fully examined by the ship's doctor, 
his pulse counted, and his tempera- 
ture taken. At Guayaquil is located 
the eenter of the Panama hat indus- 
try for 'strange to say all of the Pana- 
ma hats are made in Equador and none 
at Panama. They were given the 



name "Panama" hats because of the 
fact that Panama dealers introduced 
them into the United States. 

As is of course known to all Her- 
ald readers, Guayaquil is the only im- 
portant port possessed by the Republic 
of Equador, and it is therefore quite 
important commercially. 

It possesses several attractive 
squares, a number of churches, and 
numerous wooden structures more or 
less pretentious in size. 

While lying in the harbor at Guaya- 
quil, we witnessed all of the settings 
of an American musical comedy. The 
sub-tropical vegetation, the queer old 
Spanish city, the hazy distant moun- 
tains, and the beautiful sheet of blue 
water forming the harbor looked ex- 
actly like the product of the scene 
painter's art. In the near foreground 
lay the Equadorian navy consisting of 
one ship, in appearance not unlike a 
large American tug boat. The small 
boats of the war ship were lowered 
and the admiral of the navy was row- 
ed over to our ship and came across 
the gang plank ful'y decked out in 
naval costume with brass buttons and 
gold epaulettes. Frank Daniels or 
Jefferson De Angelis never looked more 
magnificent. 

With the admiral of the navy came 
ex-President Cordero, the old rascai 
who broke the usages of international 
law at the time of the Japanese-Chi- 
nese war by helping to transfer a 
Chilean warship to the Japanese af- 
ter hostilities had broken out. Cordero 
was defeated by Alfaro, who carried 
on a revolution against him, but nev- 
ertheless they are the best friends at 
present and Alfaro has appointed Cor- 
dero to represent Equador at the big 
September celebration in Chile. Down 
in these countries where the people 
truly indulge their time in riotous 
living, it is no great crime to get up 
a revolution as this is merely the 
South American way of holding an 
election. After the revolution is fin- 
ished, the victor is elected president 
and everything proceeds quietly until 
some other patriot gets the ambition 
to become president. 

The citizens of these countries are 
a peculiar race who must be thorough- 
ly understood before any business can 
be transacted with them. They are 
very vain, proud, touchy, and exceed- 
ingly petty. Above all things on 
earth, they value a uniform or a lit- 



tle authority. While our ship lay at 
anchor a number of the government 
officials ate dinner on board. However, 
the captain of the port of Guayaquil 
v/as not invited to join the party and 
our captain even forgot to ask him to 
have a drink. As a result his Equa- 
dorian dignity was severely disturbed 
and when we were ready to sail he 
refused to deliver the ship's papers. 
There was considerable strenuous ar- 
gument out on deck as the captain 
wished to get his ship out before the 




The Fort that was the scene of a 
near "Opera Bouffe" combat. 



tide changed as otherwise he would be 
compelled to wait until morning. He 
therefore informed the captain of the 
port that if he did not deliver the pa- 
pers he would sail out without them. 
The captain of the port with profound 
dignity informed him that he would 
telephone to the fort at the river en- 
trance and have the Aysen fired upon 
and stopped. The captain then told 
him with considerable emphasis that 



if he so much as fired a pop gun at 
the Aysen, he would lower his life 
boats and take his "blankety blank" 
fort. 

It began to look like a newspaper 
"scoop" and we made inquiry in regard 
to the nearest cable office, but finally 
after several hours exasperating de- 
lay, the captain of the port extracted 
the papers from his pocket and allow- 
ed the ship to . proceed. However, he 
had not finished with us yet, for when 
we got outside of the harbor, there 
was no boat to take the pilot off. It 
was then quite late at night and the 
captain decided to get even. So he 
tied down the steam whistle and also 
the steam siren and proceeded to wake 
up everybody in Guayaquil. It was 
not very long before the captain of 
the port sent a boat for his pilot and 
we continued our journey on down the 
coast toward Callao and Lima. 



ECUADOR 



Guayaquil, August, 1910. — We have 
interviewed on behalf of the Her- 
ald, Colonel Alfaro, son of the 
President of Ecuador, and Commander- 
in-Chief of the Ecuadorian army. 

Senor Alfaro is a comparatively young 
man, in appearance not unlike an 
American, who speaks very good Eng- 
lish and entertains advanced ideas in 
regard to South American problems. 
He is well groomed and polite, but is 
forceful in his language and appears to 
be very business-like. 

The readers of the Herald will re- 
call the fact that in times gone by 
Ecuador has suffered from continuous 
revolutions. However, some ten or 
twelve years ago, Eloy Alfaro over- 
threw the then existing government 
since which time his influence has 
been paramount in Ecuador. During 
these later years there have been 
numerous disturbances in the country 
but they have been put down in a sum- 
mary manner. Notwithstanding the 
fact that comparative peace has reign- 
ed, there is at the present time, as al- 
ways, a disaffected political faction 
which would be inclined to cause trou- 
ble were it given an opportunity. 

All Americans were interested in the 
war-like attitude assumed by Peru and 
Ecuador a few months ago over the 
boundary line question. This boundary 
line question had been in dispute be- 



tween these two countries for a long 
time and finally it was decided to re- 
fer the whole matter to the King of 
Spain and both countries agreed to 
abide by his decision. Last April, it 
was expected that the King's decision 
would soon be made public, but at this 
stage of the negotiations Ecuador flat- 
ly stated that she would not be bound 
by the decision as she had advance in- 
formation that the King would decide 
against her. 

Thereupon, attacks were made 
against Peruvian citizens in Ecuador 
and similar attacks were made upon 
Ecuadorian citizens in Peru. Both 
countries rushed soldiers to the frontier 
and war seemed unpreventable. At this 
stage of the proceedings, the United 
States, Argentine Republic and Brazil 
tendered their good offices which were 
accepted by both countries. 

Commenting upon this situation, 
Senor Alfaro stated that the reason his 
government withdrew was due to the 
fact that it had positive information 
that some of the ministers surrounding 
the King of Spain had been bribed and 
that the decision would consequently 
be against his country and they con- 
sequently felt justified in breaking 
the arbitration agreement. He stated 
that chances of war between the 
two countries were now remote and 
that a new arbitration arrangement 
would doubtless be arranged by the 
interested parties; Ecuador preferring 
to leave the whole matter to the de- 
cision of Theodore Roosevelt. 

According to Senor Alfaro, Amer- 
ican goods are welcomed with open 
arms by Ecuador but he feels that at 
the present time there is a distrust of 
Americans all over South America and 
particularly in his country. This, he 
ascribes to the policies of the state de- 
partment of the United States which 
have not been in accord with the poli- 
cies inaugurated by Secretary of State 
Root which did much to advance 
American prestige in South America. 

In the South American republics, it 
has been generally hoped that the in- 
fluence of the United States would be 
used to put an end to the constantly 
recurring South American revolu- 
tions, and that as a result, peace and 
prosperity would eventually reign in 
this disturbed part of the world. It is 
felt that the influence of the United 
States should be in favor of the ex- 



17 



isting governments, and should be us- 
ed to put down revolutions against the 
established authorities. 

However, the United States first used 
its influence in connection with Pana- 
ma, but this influence was extended 
to the revolutionists and was against 
the Columbian government. The in- 
terest of the United States in the Pan- 
ama canal was thoroughly understood, 
according to Senor Alfaro, and the 
action of the United States would 
have been entirely overlooked had it 
not at a more recent date espoused 
the cause of the revolution in Vene- 
zuela against the government, and 
were it not at the present time allow- 
ing itself to be made the backbone of 
the revolution in Nicaragua against 
the government. Senor Alfaro stated 
that the position which the United 
States government is taking in these 
matters is very unfortunate as instead 
of insuring peace in South America, it 
is leading to disturbed conditions 
throughout the continent. 

There is not a republic in South 
America that does not have its revolu- 
tionary party and these agitators 
against the various governments are 
all inclined to cause trouble at the 
first opportunity expecting that the 
United States will support their cause 
as it has in the cases cited. Senor Al- 
faro does not blame the officials at 
Washington for the position which has 
been taken but feels that the incom- 
petency of our consular service is the 
real cause of the trouble. By way of 
passing, it might be interesting to note 
that we have heard similar statements 
expressed by competent people all over 
the world. 

Senor Alfaro believes that Guaya- 
quil is to be one of the greatest cities 
in South America. It is the port of 
entry for all of the commerce of Ecua- 
dor and has the only protected harbor 
between Panama and Callao. He feels 
that its present unsanitary condition 
is its only drawback and he states that 



this matter has been taken up by the 
United States government, that its 
sanitary engineers have visited Guaya- 
quil, and that the state department is 
now endeavoring to arrange a loan in 
the United States, the proceeds of 
which are to be used in paying the 
cost of the cleaning up of Guayaquil 
by the United States officials. 

He states that the amount of this 
loan will be $12,000,000, and that it 
will be issued by the municipality of 
Guayaquil and guaranteed by the gov- 
ernment of Ecuador. Senor Alfaro 
feels that American business expan- 
sion in his country cannot reach its 
greatest development until there is a 
branch of an American bank located 
there. It is surprising to him that the 
United States does not pass some law 
allowing a bank to take out a national 
charter which will give it the privilege 
of not only transacting business in its 
own country but also of maintaining 
branches in foreign countries. 

Senor Alfaro stated that the German 
manufacturer had an advantage over 
the American manufacturer because 
the American manufacturer had no 
American bank to furnish him credit, 
information or report to him on Ecua- 
dorean conditions or handle exchange 
on New York, all of which is now 
drawn on London. 

Furthermore, he stated that an 
American bank could handle bond is- 
sues covering Ecuadorean improve- 
ments and would thereby be placed in 
a position to dictate that American 
manufacturers get the contracts. At 
present all such bond issues are han- 
dled by European banks and European 
firms therefore get the contracts. 

In conclusion, Senor Alfaro said that 
he believed that the opening of the 
Panama canal would mark the begin- 
ning of a new era in South American 
history, and that close commercial as- 
sociation with the United States would 
go hand in hand with a lasting peace 
on the South American continent. 



PERU. 



Lima, Peru, August, 1910. — A day or 
so after leaving- Guayaquil we came 
wihin sight of the barren, sandy, and 
mountainous coast line of Peru and 
were told that all the way on to Val- 
paraiso the coast would look like a 
barren desert, the great sand colored 
mountains that are so close to the 
shore, becoming higher and more rug- 
ged as we proceeded further south. 

Our ship having pulled in quite 
close to the land, we could see that 
the hills close to the shore were dot- 
ted with great wooden scaffolds, which 
upon nearer approach, turned out to 
be the hundreds of oil wells that make 
up the famous Lobitus oil fields. Not 
far from Lobitus is the port of Payta, 
where we stopped. Payta is a little 
cluster of wooden buildings, situated 
on the beach and inhabited by about 
six thousand people. 

In the little cathedral is located the 
famous bleeding statue. It is said that 
when Sir Henry Morgan, the pirate, 
came down this coast and sacked the 
old City of Payta, he showed his con- 
tempt for the church by cutting a 
great gash with his sword in the neck 
of the image of the Virgin that was 
located in the cathedral. Sir Henry 
Morgan then sailed away, but from 
that day to this on the anniversary 
of the pillage of Payta the wound in 
the neck of the image bleeds, and ev- 
ery man who has tried to stop the 
blood has died within twenty-four 
hours. We asked some boatmen on the 
beach if this story was true, and they 
assured us with great solemnity that 
it was. 

After taking on a large cargo of 
cotton, which was neatly and strongly 
baled, we pulled up anchor, bound for 
Eten, which was the next stop. 

At no place on the western coast of 
South America are there any piers 
which will accommodate a large ship, 



and it is always necessary to land in 
a small boat. Furthermore, there are 
practically no harbors, nearly all of 
the ports being merely open road- 
steads in which the swell causes great 
breakers. There are hardly ever any 
storms in this part of the world, but 
there is a very stong swell from the 
south that at times makes it almost 
impossible to land. The morning we 
arrived at Eten, there was such a 
great sea running that a small boat 
could not get alongside without being 
crushed like an eggshell. Consequent- 
ly the passengers for Eten were trans- 
ferred from our ship to a lighter, by 
crane and basket. Four people at a 
time were seated in a large iron bas- 
ket, which was placed on the deck of 
our ship. Then a heavy cable running 
from one of the ship's cranes, was 
attached to the basket, which was 
hoisted into the air and swung out 
over a lighter, which was nearby, and 
the crane then dropped the basket in 
this lighter, where the people got out 
and were rowed to shore. 

From Eten we went to Pacasmayo 
and then on to Sallaverry, both of the 
latter towns being small ports, where 
we took on large quantities of sugar, 
oranges, and bananas. 

The next day we arrived at Callao, 
which is pronounced "Ca-yow," with 
the accent on the "yow." Here, for the 
first time on the west coast, we saw 
what appeared to be a real commer- 
cial port, filled with the shipping of 
all nations, except the American, 
which is hardly ever seen on any of 
the high seas, owing largely to the na- 
ture of our shipping laws. Callao is 
rather a good sized city and is the 
port for Lima, the capitol of Peru, 
eight miles away. We took an Ameri- 
can-owned interurban car for Lima, 
and arrived in about twenty minutes, 
and found that the city possessed a 



fairly good hotel, which we made our 
headquarters. We were fortunate in 
meeting some friends here, who took 
us in charge and we proceeded to see 
the town. 

Nearly everything in Lima is mod- 
eled after the old Spanish style and 
of course everybody speaks the lan- 
guage cf Castile, but we were surprised 
to find many American articles in the 
shops, and to notice a good many 
Americans on the streets. This is due 
tc the fact that nearby are located the 
great Cerro de Pasco copper mines 
which are owned by Americans and 
which are reached by one of the 
world's greatest engineering marvels, 
a railroad climbing 14,200 feet toward 
the sky. 

Lima is filled with Cathedrals, 
monks, and lottery tickets. There are 
few places that one can go withoul 
coming across cathedrals or monks 
and there are absolutely no places 
where one can wander without being 
confronted by a lottery ticket. The 
boatmen sell them, the newsboys ped- 
dle them, the cripples, invalids, beg- 
gars, street car conductors, butchers, 
bakers, and candlestick makers all 
insist that you buy them. 

The Cathedrals are very ancient 
and very magnificent for such a far 
away country, but there are so many 
services continually going on that it 
is hard to understand how the peo- 
ple find time to do anything but pray. 
We were told that Pizarro, the great 
Spanish explorer and conqueror, was 
over in the big Cathedral on the pla- 
za, and so we went to call on him. We 
were somewhat disappointed as was 
the Chicago Alderman who visited Eu- 
rope for the first time and kicked be- 
cause he said he found that all the 
people he wanted to meet, such as 
Julius Caesar and Mark Antony, had 
been dead a thousand years. Old Pi- 
zarro was there all right, and we saw 
him, but he was in a glass coffin and 
couldn't talk. It will be remembered 
that Pizarro was the scoundrel who 
trapped and betrayed Atahuallpa, the 
last of the great Incas. 

Atahuallpa had come to welcome Pi- 
zarro to the Empire of the ancient 
Incas whose civilization was one of the 
marvels of the world of antiquity. Pi- 
zarro accepted the Emperor's kindly 
welcome and as a reward threw him 
into chains and carried him away a 
captive. He then agreed to free Ata- 



huallpa providing he would fill a room 
as high as his head with gold. The 
Inca empire was scoured from one end 
to the other and the gold was produced 
according to contract whereupon Pi- 
zarro killed Atahuallpa. This cruel 
act of Pizarro's was but in keeping 
with the policy of Spain throughout 
the world and throughout the centu- 
ries. 

Lima is regularly laid out and most 
of the buildings are constructed of 
mud which is plastered on the outside 
and painted. A few weeks' hard rain 
would doubtless wash away the city, 
but in Lima it never rains. In the 
center of the city is located the plaza 
where is situated the great cathedral, 
and around the other sides of which 
extend arcades resembling some of the 
streets in Paris. In these arcades can 
be seen all of the types that go to 
make up the population. Mixed in with 
the Peruvians, who resemble Spaniards, 
are many Indians and a few Europe- 
ans, and the number of beggars, crip- 
ples and blind men is remarkable. 
Most of the women wear either "mar- 
tas," which are large black shawls 
drawn down over the head and around 
the body and tied tight at the neck, 
or else "mantillas" which are made of 
lace and are usually black. 

The people are very polite to each 
other, a great deal of bowing and 
bobbing up and down being indulged 
in whenever friends meet. Instead of 
shaking hands, they have a peculiar 
way of patting each other on the back. 

The public buildings of Lima and 
the foreign bank buildings are very 
modern and quite imposing and the 
street car system and public utilities 
generally are quite up to date. 

A little way out from the center of 
the city is a long promenade some- 
what resembling the Prado in Havana, 
and at one end of this is located a 
beautiful park and the Lima Museum 
and Art Gallery. The vegetation in 
this park consists of very beautiful 
tropical trees and shrubbery, and in 
among the palms and flowers trickles 
a little artificial stream on the banks 
of which is located the "zoo" contain- 
ing specimens of native animals and 
birds. Conspicuous among these are 
the llamas which are the camels of 
South America and the condor which 
is the national bird. The museum is 
verv extensive and contains the 



world's largest collection of Inca rel- 
ics. Among these are many examples 
of the peculiar ornaments which 
these Indians fashioned out of cop- 
per, gold, and silver, and also many 
examples of their pottery and handi- 
work. On the walls are hung many 
specimens of the blankets and 
clothes which the Incas made out of 
feathers. Many of their blankets re- 
semble the well known blankets of 
our North American Indians, but 
upon close examination it is found 
that they are made of feathers, the 
various colored plumage of the birds 
producing the different colors in the 



destroyed and the facial resemblance 
was similar to that possessed in life. 
The specimens in the museum are 
very perfect and most interesting. 

During the night we were some- 
what annoyed at first by the police 
whistles. There is a policeman on 
every corner in Lima and each one 
of them possesses a very shrill whis- 
tle. Every half hour, the policeman 
in front of the police station blows 
several shrill notes with his whistle 
and this signal is repeated in turn 
by every policeman in the city. It is 
odd to listen to this 1 whistle and hear 
it gradually travel up and down the 




GRAND CATHEDRAL OF LIMA, A NOTABLE CHURCH IN A CITY OF 

CHURCHES. 



blankets. 

In a large case is a collection of 
very small Indian heads which look 
as though they had been taken from 
mummies and which are only two or 
three inches in diameter. It seems that 
certain of the Indians in the interior 
possessed the secret of shrinking the 
heads and skulls of human beings to 
a very small size. The hair was not 



streets from one end of the city to 
the other. In case any policeman fails 
to whistle when his turn comes his 
nearest colleagues immediately look 
him up to see if any harm has come 
to him. It seemed to us that this sys- 
stem was a fine thing for the crooks 
as it would show them just where 
the police were. 

We were surprised to find that in 



Lima we could not readily cash our 
American money orders, and even the 
steamship company refused to take 
anything but "pounds sterling." We 
have cashed these orders all over Eu- 
rope and they went without a mur- 
mur in Siberia and China, but in Lima 
our patriotism was considerably ruf- 
fled by having the inhabitants almost 
to a man "demand cash." 

It is perhaps a sign of the times to 
note that in almost all of these coun- 
tries bull fights are a thing of the 
past, and even in Lima they are get- 
ting to be few and far between. 

Our visit to the Capitol of Peru was 



indeed a pleasant one notwithstand- 
ing the bugs. However, by this time 
we have met so many brands of bugs 
that any new local species has no ter- 
rors for us. 

Returning to Callao, we transferred 
our baggage from the Aysen over to 
the British steamship "Orissa," which 
will save us five days' time into Val- 
paraiso, and it was with considerable 
regret that we said good-bye to Cap- 
tain Graham who was currently re- 
ported to carry a tomahawk in his 
belt, but who doesn't and who had 
helped to make our voyage thus far 
a most pleasant one. 




WHERE LIMA 



RESTS— THE PLAZA OR CITY SQUARE OF THE 
PERUVIAN CAPITOL. 



THE PRESIDENT OF PERU. 



Lima, August, 1910. — We have today 
joyed an instructive interview With 
Augusto B. Leguia, president of Peru. 

It will be recalled that throughout 
Peru's more or less stormy career, 
there has existed a strong friendship 
between the Peruvians and the people 



of the United States, and large 
amounts of American capital have been 
invested in Peru. Probably the largest 
American investment in the country 
is embodied in the great Cerro de 
Pasco copper mines buft there are, 
however, many other large undertak- 



ings controlled by American capital. 

The country is enormously rich in 
mineral resources, and lack of trans- 
portation has been the only great 
drawback to development, but now 
that this problem is gradually being 
solved there will be more and more 
opportunities to develop profitably the 
mineral resources of the country. 

Politically, Peru has for a long time 
been surrounded by enemies. The 
feeling against Chile is of long stand- 
ing and will probably not be eradicat- 
ed for many years to come. 

At the end of the Chilian-Peruvian 
war, Chile took certain provinces away 
from Peru and Bolivia, and in addition 
specified in the treaty of peace that 
she was to govern the two provinces 
of Tacna and Arica for a period of 
ten years, and at the end of that time 
a vote was to be taken in these two 
provinces as to whether they should 
be ruled by Chile or Peru and the 
winning country was to pay the oth- 
er country the sum of ten million 
dollars. 

Now, these two provinces contain 
the famous nitrate beds and guano 
deposits from which a tremendous 
revenue is derived by the nation con- 
trolling them. For this reason both 
nations desired to get control, and so 
at the end of the specified ten year 
period a disagreement arose in regard 
to the terms of the treaty of peace. 

The Chilians had sent many of their 
people into these provinces and claim- 
ed that every inhabitant residing 
within their boundaries had a right 
to vote on the question as to whether 
the provinces should belong to Chile 
or Peru. Under these conditions, Chile 
would, of course, win. On the other 
hand, Peru claimed that as the pro- 
vinces originally belonged to her, the 
only persons who had a right to vote 
under the provisions of the treaty of 
peace were the Peruvians living with- 
in the boundaries of the two pro- 
vinces. Under these conditions, Peru 
would, of course, win. 

This wrangle has dragged on for 
years, Chile still holding the provinc- 
es and Peru claiming that she has no 
right to so hold them. This situation 
is the most dangerous in South Amer- 
ica, and is the cause of much uneasi- 
ness and continual agitation and bad 
feeling. It is said that the United 



States, Brazil, and Argentina have 
been trying to settle this dispute and 
that they are still using their influ- 
ence along these lines but at the 
present time success is looked upon by 
most people as rather remote. 

Peru has lately been involved with 
Brazil, Bolivia, and Columbia over 
boundary lines and for a time serious 
trouble with Bolivia threatened but at 
present these disputes have been sat- 
isfactorily settled and the only argu- 
ment which Peru now has outstand- 
ing is with her only other neighbor, 
Equador. This dispute over the Equa- 
dorian boundary seriously threatened 
war a few months ago, but the inter- 
vention of the United States, Brazil, 
and Argentina leads to the belief that 
the matter will now be peaceably set- 
tled. In addition to all of these out- 
side troubles, there has been consider- 
able agitation inside of the country 
which has even gone so far as to sug- 
gest revolutionary measures. 

However, at present while there is 
a spirit of unrest in some quarters, 
nevertheless it is pretty well subdued 
and does not menace business interests 
at the present time. Notwithstand- 
ing all of these difficulties, together 
with others of an economic nature, 
Peru has been steadily advancing and 
will doubtless keep on the upward 
path. 

President Leguia is a very small 
man in stature, but is genial and cor- 
dial. He speaks excellent English and 
impresses one immediately with his 
thorough knowledge of business and 
commerce. Before his election to the 
Presidency of the Republic, he was a 
successful business man who had 
amassed a considerable fortune, and 
as a result of his training he is par- 
ticularly interested in the commercial 
development of his country. He greet- 
ed us in the Presidential palace in a 
cordial American manner, asked us to 
make ourselves at home and assured 
us that the Peruvians always felt that 
they were connected by the strongest 
ties to the Americans. 

After outlining the financial and the 
economic conditions of the govern- 
ment and country, Senor Leguia refer- 
red to the great American investments 
ir his country and assured us that ev- 
ery dollar of American capital was 
fully appreciated and would be care- 
fully protected. 

He is a great optimist on the future 



c.P. Pefu and if he lived in America 
lie would be termed a "booster" of the 
first order. He called our attention 
tc the development which had been 
made in agriculture in the valleys be- 
tween the ranges of the Andes, but 
stated that the chief source of the 
wealth of his country was in her min- 
erals. He feels that if these minerals 
are properly exploited and the agri- 
cultural possibilities of the country 
fully developed that Peru will be ca- 
pable Of holding and supporting fifty 
million people and as the population 
of the world increases he believes that 
the overflow from the United States 
wili find its way down the West coast 
of South America. 




AUGUSTA B. LEGUIA, 
President of Peru. 



President Leguia believes that the 
opening of the Panama canal will 
start an entirely new era in South 
American development and that as a 
result, United States trade will un- 
questionably dominate the west coast. 
His study of statistics covering condi- 
tions in our own country leads him to 
believe that from now on American 
markets will not be large enough to 
take care of all the manufactured out- 



put of the country and that as a in- 
sult the American manufacturer will 
be forced to seek foreign trade out- 
lets. 

At this stage of the interview, the 
president grew eloquent in defense of 
South America's claims on the earnest 
consideration of American manufac- 
turers. He compared the South 
American field with that in the Orient 
and it must be confessed that his ar- 
guments were convincing. From the 
standpoint of distance, environment, 
protection, transportation difficulties, 
and mutual interest, South America 
would seem to furnish the ideal field 
for the exploitation of American 
goods. 

But the president feels that the first 
and foremost requisite to the further 
advancement of American commercial 
influence in South America is the ab- 
solute necessity of an American bank 
with branches throughout the conti- 
nent. He stated that he could not un- 
derstand why such a bank had not 
been established and when we ex- 
plained to him the difficulty of incor- 
porating such a bank under the Uni- 
ted States laws,, he expressed great 
surprise that such a condition should 
exist. 

He cited the many branches of for- 
eign banks in South America, and ex- 
plained that the English and German 
trade could never have been extended 
as it has been without the aid of the 
English and German banks. The presi- 
dent stated that the absolute necessity 
of the establishment of an American 
bank in his country did not seem to be 
understood by Americans and he went 
on to explain why American manu- 
facturers could not compete to advan- 
tage with foreigners unless they had 
their own banking connections in this 
part of the world. 

His arguments and theories on this 
subject coincide with those expressed 
to us by Senor Alfaro of Equador. He 
believes that an American banking in- 
stitution will pay from the start and 
explained a number of reasons which 
prompted this belief. Incidentally, it 
might be noted that first class local 
bank loans draw from eight to four- 
teen per cent interest in this country. 

Commenting upon the methods em- 
ployed by American manufacturers in 
this part of the world, President Le- 



guia voiced the sentiments that are 
heard on all sides — carelessness on the 
part of the manufacturers, lack of 
study of the needs of the people, 
"fresh" salesmen who cannot speak 
Spanish and who will not accustom 
themselves to South American ways, 
miserable packing-, and general ineffi- 
ciency. 

These charges against our manu- 
facturers seem inconceivable to people 
who reside in the States and who are 
familiar with the efficiency which 
these manufacturers maintain at home 



but nevertheless all of these charges 
are perfectly just and constant criti- 
cism from our consuls and represen- 
tatives in this part of the world does 
not seem to lead to much improve- 
ment. 

At the conclusion of this very inter- 
esting interview, President Lequia 
bade us good-bye with many senti- 
ments of personal esteem for the 
American people, and we left the pal- 
ace with very pleasant impressions of 
the president of the Peruvians. 



THE COAST OF CHILE. 



Valparaiso, Chile, September, 1910.— 
Prom Callao to Mollendo is a two days' 
sail along a bleak and barren coast and 
when the "Orissa" pulled into the road- 
sted everybody on board scrambled into 
the little boats and we were rowed 
ashore. The landing at Mollendo is the 
same as at nearly all of the other west 
coast ports — rough and dangerous. There 
is usually a long rope hanging down 
from above the landing stairs and each 
passenger in his turn reaches up and 
gets a firm hold on this rope before 
attempting to step from the small boat 
to the landing. Thus, should the swell 
take the small boat out from under- 
neath his feet just as he is stepping 
ashore he can at least hang to the rope 
until the boatman gets the boat un- 
derneath him again or somebody fishes 
him up on the dock. In South Amer- 
ica the landing rope is certainly a 
great institution. 

Mollendo is a struggling frame town 
located on the beach at the foot of 
great mountains of sand and is unat- 
tractive from every standpoint except 
that of commerce. Commercially, it 
is important because from here runs 
the railroad to Bolivia and a consider- 
able part of the exports of Bolivia come 



to the Pacific by this route. 

In Mollendo we saw for the first 
time a donkey tied in true South Amer- 
ican style. A native wished to leave 
his donkey while he went into a shop 
and instead of tieing it as we would in 
cur country, he simply took a small 
piece of rope and tied its two front 
legs together near the hoofs. We were 
much interested in this, but imagine 
our surprise when presently the don- 
key, which looked very hungry, hop- 
ped across the street with its legs 
tied together and ate some banana 
peels that were lying on the pavement. 
Throughout South America, the 
costumes of the people are interesting 
and quite varied. At Mollendo we saw 
the first of the ponchos. These are 
large square blankets of all sorts of 
colors, each one of which has a slit 
cut in the center through which the 
wearer sticks his head. 

The railroad from Mollendo runs 
through a great sand plain with con- 
stantly increasing altitude to the an- 
cient city of Arequipa, and on the way 
can be seen the famous traveling sand 
hills. The sand is piled up by the 
wind in the form of huge crescents 
and the top of the crescent is con- 



25 



stantly being blown down in front of 
it. Thus the crescent gradually moves 
forward and is irresistible in its slow 
onward march. 

Arequipa is a very old and historic 
city in Peru, and is the center of cler- 
ical power and learning. It has many 
interesting churches and cloisters, is 
located at a Very high altitude, and is 
surrounded by magnificent mountain 
peaks. 

In this part of the continent the 
electric storms are very severe. The 
thunder and lightning snaps and 
cracks in a way to make the average 
American hunt around for a cyclone 
cellar. Most people stay in Arequipa 
at least a day in order to become ac- 










Tying a Donkey. 



customed to the altitude, and then 
continue on the railroad to Lake Titi- 
caca, which is the highest fresh water 
lake in the world and around which 
cluster many of the traditions and 
much of the romance of the old Inca 
civilization. Here can be seen many 
of the famous straw boats of the In- 
dians. These boats are made entirely 
out of a peculiar sort of straw, many 
of them being very large in size, and 
are very seaworthy. Whenever they 
become water-logged, the Indians 
merely pull them up on the shore and 
let them dry in the sun. A boat takes 
the traveler down Lake Titicaca at the 
other end of which he again takes a 
train bound for La Paz. La Paz is the 
chief city of Bolivia, and has one of 
the most peculiar locations of any city 
in the world. It is situated at the 
bottom of a great round bowl which 
sinks twelve hundred feet below the 



surface of the surrounding plain. The 
city is made up mostly of picturesque 
Indians and foreigners who are inter- 
ested in the mighty undeveloped min- 
eral resources of Bolivia. The return 
trip to the ocean can be made by a 
wonderful railroad to Antofagasta or 
the traveler can retrace the route by 
which he came. At present there is 
under construction a much shorter 
railroad which will connect La Paz 
with Arica. 

From Mollendo, we sailed on down 
the coast passing Arica with its great 
rock resembling Gibraltar, and steam- 
ed into the roadstead at Iquique. And 
here we got our first real sight of 
bird life in this part of the world. Fly- 
ing from south to north were actually 
millions of birds keeping close to the 
water and flying very swiftly in long 
lines and great groups. The long un- 
broken mass of birds extended as far 
as we could see, and they seemed to be 
coming out of the horizon in countless 
thousands. As long as the daylight 
lasted, we could see this unbroken col- 
umn of birds flying swiftly by. 

Inside of the roadstead were many 
more birds, most, of them being gulls, 
buzzards, and large pelicans, and it 
was interesting to watch these birds 
fish. At times, thirty or forty of 
them would plunge into the water at 
once, being attracted by a school of 
fish and the possibility of getting a 
good dinner. 

We had been told that the people of 
Chile were a live and hustling race, 
and the truth of this statement was 
impressed upon us when we compared 
slow, easy-going Mollendo, the last 
Peruvian port we had visited, with 
Iquique, our first stop in Chile. Here, 
the boatmen raced each other and 
fought all the way from shore to the 
"Orissa" and swore like Americans. It 
made us homesick to see them hurry. 
When they finally got us in their small 
boats and rowed us ashore we were 
met by a band of shouting newsboys, 
who wanted to sell us a "special ex- 
tra," and it looked so much like home 
that we bought the papers, even 
though they were printed in Spanish. 

Everybody in Iquique seemed to step 
lively, and on all sides could be seen 
Chilian flags and other evidences of 
the patriotism of the population. In 
Iquique there are several attractive 
public squares' or plazas, and several 



26 



good business streets with nice look- 
ing shops. We stopped in at one of 
the shops and took our first lesson in 
Chilian finance. We purchased a pack- 
age of chocolate, and tendered a five 
dollar gold piece in payment. Imagina 
our surprise when we received twenty- 
two dollars in change. The Chilian 
paper currency is much depreciated 
and as a result a pair of shoes costs 
from twenty to thirty- five dollars. 

Iquique is, of course, rough as it is 
built on the sand hills, and has abso- 
lutely no natural advantages. Never- 




Arica's "Gibralter." 



theless, it has many public utilities 
and is a great nitrate and guano port. 
The nitrate beds lie some miles back 
from the coast and are Chile's chief 
source of national revenue. They are 
owned by individuals but the heavy 
export tax on nitrate pays nearly all 
of Chile's national expenses. A high 
rate of export tax can be maintained 
as there are practically no nitrate beds 
in the world outside of Chile. It is - not 
known how these nitrate beds were 
formed, but they have been there for 
a great period of time and have not 
been dissolved because of the fact that 
it never rains in this part of the con- 
tinent. The surface of the beds is 
broken up by dynamite and the debris 
is then taken to a plant, where it is 
dissolved and by a system of condens- 
ation the nitrate is extracted and then 
crystallized, packed in bags, shipped 
to Iquique, or one of the other nearby 
ports, and sent to the United States 
or Europe. 

Iquique is also the port from which 
a great deal of Guano is shipped. This 



guano is collected from islands and 
from along the coast, and is sent to 
Europe to be used as a fertilizer. 

Sailing from Iquique late in the af- 
ternoon, we were impressed with the 
suddenness with which night comes 
on. There is no twilight and the 
change from daylight to darkness 
takes place in a very few moments. 
At 6 o'clock it is as dark as the pro- 
verbial pocket. 

To the astronomer and the admirer 
of the heavens a trip to this part of 
the world is most interesting. The 
sunsets and cloud effects are very 
beautiful, the after-glow that follows 
the sunset being particularly fine. 
Many of the northern constellations 
cannot be seen here and at night the 




Loading Copper. 



strange constellations of the south 
prove as surprising as does the sun 
in the daytime, which, of course, ap- 
pears far to the north at noon. 

The next place we visited was Anto- 
fagasta, whose harbor is filled with 
seals and sealions. These sea animals 



27 



arc protected by law and are very 
fearless. A school of them appeared 
near our small boat and carried on an 
animated warfare with the gulls which 
were trying to get all of the little 
scraps of food that were floating in the 
water. 

Antofagasta is very much like Iqui- 
que. The people seem to be very much 
a?ive as the mountains back of the 
town were covered with huge adver- 
tisements, and nearly every street in 
the place was torn up preparatory to 
the installation of water mains and 
sewers. 

It is interesting to note that all of 
ihe west coast cities are compelled to 
pipe their water supply for from fifty 
to two hundred miles as it never rains 




A Chilean Village. 



on the coast and there are no wells or 
springs. Many of them also have con- 
densing plants which condense the sea 
water. 

In Antofagasta all the flags were 
out at half mast as a mark of re- 
spect to the memory of the late pres- 
ident of Chile. On one of the streets 
are clustered together a number of the 
consular offices of the great nations 
of the world. Each one of these of- 
fices had a bright, new, fine looking 
flag flying from the pole. However, 
ii the center of the group was the 
office of the American Consular Agent 
and tied by a string to a pole on top 
of his home was a red, white and blue 
fiag that had seen better days, and the 



better days were a long time back. We 
decided on the spot to buy him a new 
flag if one could be purchased on this 
side of the Andes and went up to the 
office to ask the agent where we could 
get one. After climbing a long flight 
of dilapidated looking stairs, we arriv- 
ed at a landing which was partly oc- 
cupied by a broken gas meter and 
some other debris and rang a bell 
which was located at the side of a 
door which contained a broken pane 
of glass. The ring was never answer- 
ed, and after ringing and waiting for 
some time we gave up in despair as 
the Consular Agent of the United 
States was not on the job. 

From Antofagasta our ship steamed 
to a little copper port where a smelter 
was located and here we landed and 
tramped over land to Coquimbo. On 
the way across we met many of the 
native boys who offered to fight each 
other for pennies which showed that 
Americans had gone that way before. 

Coquimbo is quite a little city built 
on the side of the mountains and in 
many ways resembling Algiers. Its 
streets are very steep and are filled 
with numerous pack trains of donkeys 
and llamas. It has a little plaza as d;> 
all of these cities, and its people seem 
fairly prosperous althought they do 
not seem to be quite so much alive as. 
the other Chilians we have met. 

The "Orissa" having arrived at Co- 
quimbo, we again proceeded south. A 
hundred miles or so to the west of this 
part of Chile is located Jaun Fernan- 
dez Island, which was the home of 
Robinson Crusoe during the time he 
was shipwrecked. Once a year an ex- 
cursion leaves Valparaiso for this is- 
land, and many of the Chilians go out 
there for a little vacation. 

Bright and early on the eighteenth 
day out from Panama, we steamed in- 
to the harbor of Valparaiso, feeling 
much like old sea dogs after our long 
trip on the water. 

Valparaiso is built on a narrow 
beach and steep hills and extends all 
of the way around the bay. It is there- 
fore a very long distance from one end 
of the city to the other and this fact, 
together with the further fact that it 
is partly built on the hills, makes it a 
difficult city to get around in. There 
is, however, a good system of tram 
cars which traverse the streets that 
are on the flat land and each one of 
the many hills in the city has a little 



28 



Cog--elevator that takes passengers up 
and down. These elevators are opera- 
ted by women and the conductors on 
the tram cars are also women. These 
conductors are usually well able to 
take care of themselves and do not 
permit any "mere man" to get gay on 
the trams. They wear a black patent 
leather sailor hat pinned on with a 
hat pin and bearing the name of the 
company and the conductor's number. 
Each one of them also wears a little 
white apron in the pocket of which 
she carries her money and a large roll 
of tickets, one of which is given to 
each passenger as a receipt for the 
money he has paid. 

It will be remembered that Valpa- 
raiso was almost entirely destroyed by 
the great earthquake of 1906, and re- 
ports from there during the next few 
succeeding years were to the effect 
that reconstruction was proceeding 
slowly. However, at the present time 
the main portions of the city are en- 
tirely rebuilt and look prosperous and 
modern, although many of the build- 
ings are constructed entirely of gal- 
vanized iron in order to stand the 
earthquake shocks which are always 
of frequent occurrence in this part of 
Chile. 

As one gets a little way from the 
center of the city, many evidences of 
the terrible trembler can still be seen 
and in the beautiful cemetery, which 
is located on a high hill in the center 
of Valparaiso, a considerable number 
of magnificent monuments and tombs 
are still in a wrecked condition. In 
this cemetery is one of the old burying 
places copied after the Roman style. 
This consists of a very long solid wall 
which is divided into little square 
compartments into each of which is 
fitted a coffin. The earthquakes 
broke these compartments open and 
threw the coffins out in a heap so that 



there was actually "a great rattling of 
dry bones." At present the damage 
has been repaired and the departed 
again rest in peace. 

The business of Valparaiso is loca- 
ted on four streets which run in the 
same direction on the level ground, 
but sometimes the hills encroach so 
much upon this level ground that the 
four streets are all jumbled up to- 
gether and occasionally even cross 
each other. The new buildings in the 
business part of the city are very fine, 
the banks' and newspaper buildings 
being particularly noticeable. The 
Hotel Royal, the proprietor of which 
is an American, is a very high- class 
hostelry. Most of the great commer- 
cial houses of Chile are located at 
Valparaiso, and it bears the same re- 
lation to Chile that New York bears 
to the United States', while Santiago, 
which is the great distributing center, 
is from a business viewpoint not un- 
like Chicago. The comparison is", of 
course, not very exact, but gives some 
idea of the position held by each of 
these cities in Chile. 

Everything in Chile is very high 
priced while labor is low, and as a 
result people are either very rich or 
very poor, and so there can be seen 
on the streets of Valparaiso many of 
the poorest sort of people invariably 
carrying great loads on their heads, 
and at the same time numbers of 
prosperous men and women dressed 
in the very latest Parisian styles, their 
appearance making one forget for a 
moment that he is in far away Chile. 

For a city that has been so recently 
destroyed and that is located in a 
country that has for the last few years 
been suffering from a severe financial 
depression, Valparaiso furnishes a 
striking illustration of the progres- 
siveness and recuperative power of the 
Chilian nation. 



29 



A CHILIAN PRESIDENTIAL POSSIBILITY. 



Santiago, Chile, September, 1910— We 
have today enjoyed a very pleasant talk 
with Senor Don Augustin Edwards, 
statesman, millionaire, and newspaper 
magnate, in connection with the pres- 
ent conditions in Chile. 

Owing to the recent death of Senor 
Montt, Chile is without a president for 
under their constitution the vice pres- 
ident does not succeed the president 
as under ours, but instead an election 
is held within ninety days after the 
death of the president at which time 
a new president is elected. This elec- 
tion will take place on the sixteenth 
day of October but at the present time 
the various parties have not even made 
their nominations and as there are rive 
distinct parties and a large number 
of candidates already in sight, it is 
impossible to say at this time who will 
even be the nominees. However, in 
discussing various candidates it has 
seemed to us for a number of reasons 
that Senor Edwards may perhaps be 
the next president of Chile, and he 
being one of the great men of his na- 
tion we felt that an interview with him 
could not fail to be interesting to 
American readers. 

Senor Edwards is a tall, fine look- 
ing man of winning personality, ap- 
parently under forty years of age, and 
possessed of large wealth, and of un- 
doubted attainments. He received us 
ir the office of "El Mercuric" the 
greatest newspaper in Chile, of which 
h(, is the proprietor. The paper is 
published in Santiago and Valparaiso, 
in both of which places it owns mag- 
nificent buildings equipped with read- 
ing and writing rooms, rest rooms, and 
various conveniences for the free use 
of the public. 

Senor Edwards has done much for 
the accommodation and betterment of 
the general public, and has been much 
before the public eye, having recently 
served as a member of the president's 



cabinet. He welcomed us in a most 
cordial manner, and immediately 
plunged into a review of the recent 
commercial history of his country, call- 
ing our attention to the terrible losses 
by earthquke and the disastrous con- 
sequences of the panic of 1907 which 
was followed by a business depression 
lasting until the present day. Not- 
withstanding these calamities, Chile 
has managed to show progress and 
he believes that from now on condi- 
t'ons will constantly improve. 

During the recent depression, the 
Montt administration has given the 
people employment by the expenditure 
of huge sums of money for great pub- 
lic improvements. These improvements 
will unquestionably prove a great boon 
to Chile, but Senor Edwards pointed 
out that these large sums of money 
had been appropriated and spent out 
of the current revenues of the coun- 
try, and a deficit had been thereby 
created which had injured the finan- 
cial standing of the nation. He stat- 
ed that in his opinion the new admin- 
istration whch is to be elected in Oc- 
tober would continue the public im- 
provements but would discontinue pay- 
ing for them out of the current reve- 
nues, and instead would bond them as 
is done :n most other countries. These 
b( nds will be offered to European and 
American bankers, and this new capi- 
tal coming into his country he felt 
would improve conditions generally. 

At the present time, Chilean paper 
currency is much depreciated inas- 
much as it is merely an unsecured 
promise of the government and is not 
convertible into gold. However, a 
large sum of gold is being accumulat- 
ed and placed upon deposit in Europe 
for the credit of the conversion fund, 
and it is promised that in 1915 the 
government will make this paper con- 
vertible into gold and thereby bring it 
up to par. However, this promise is 



hot looked upon with much confidence 
by the business community as there 
are reasons why the Chilean vested 
interests prefer a depreciated cur- 
rency, and furthermore, the fear is ex- 
pressed that should Chile be drawn 
into a war the gold in the conversion 
fund would be used for the purchase 
of armaments and the currency would 
be still further depreciated. Senor Ed- 
wards does' not feel this way. He pre- 
dicts that from now on the currency 
will go up in value and that it will 
eventually be redeemed in gold there- 
by removing the greatest obstacle in 
the way of stable trade conditions in 
Chile. He scoffs at the idea of Chile 
becoming involved in war with any 
power, as he states that the most 
friendly relations exist between his 
country and all other nations except 
Peru. 

The Chilean possession of the two 
provinces of Tacna and Arica makes 
it impossible for Chi'e and Peru to 
be friendly, and Senor Edwards ac- 
knowledges that Chile will never give 
up these provinces' or even submit to 
arbitration. However, he does not 
think that Peru will ever be strong 
enough to go to war with Chile over 
the wording of the old treaty of peace 
in connection with these two disputed 
provinces. He further called attention 
to the practical impossibility of inter- 
nal disturbances, and cited the present 
political situation as an illustration of 
the fact that presidents are elected in 
Chile and not created by revolutions 
as in so many of the other South 
American republics. 

The proprietor of El Mercurio is 
enthusiastic about America and Amer- 
ican goods, but acknowledges that 
Americans have long been unpopular 
in Chile owing to the very unfortunate 
misunderstandings that have so fre- 
quently existed between the two na- 
tions,. 



He states that every time American 
trade has seemed to be getting on a 
firm foundation in Chile, one of our 
numerous differences has arisen to 
act as a hindrance to its development. 
On the other hand during fifty or sixty 
years of trading with England and 
Germany, there has never been a dis- 
pute o.- misunderstanding. As a con- 
sequence these countries have enjoyed 
most of the trade, although American- 
goods would be much in demand ii 
properly introduced. 

It seems to be a habit in South 
America to criticise our state depart- 
ment. In Chile it is contended that 
we should not push so-called Amer- 
ican methods so far as to insist on the 
instantaneous settlement of all ques- 
tions in dispute but should take ac- 
count of the characteristics of the 
Latin races, and while forcing settle- 
ments in accordance with our national 
interests, nevertheless do it a little 
more tactfully and not try to force 
matters quite so fast among this race 
of people as we would among our 
own. 

Senor Edwards thinks that American 
and Chilian business men should be- 
come better acquainted and says that 
an American bank should be estab- 
lished in his country and high grade, 
tactful representatives should be sent 
there by American manufacturers. 

He is a great admirer of former 
Secretary of State Root, and in this 
connection it is safe to say that ih 
South America Mr. Root is more pop- 
ular than any other citizen of the 
United States. Many times we have 
heard the hope expressed that Mr. 
Root would some day be president of 
our country. 

Mr. Edwards is a strong, up-to-date 
and learned man, and if at this time 
or in the future, he should be elected 
president of Chile, he will doubtless 
acquit himself with ability and honor. 



8) 



SANTIAGO AND THE ANDES MOUNTAINS. 



Buenos Ayres, Argentine, September, 
1910. — Leaving Valparaiso, a thorough- 
ly comfortable and up-to-date railroad 
traverses a country very much re- 
sembling Southern California until it 
arrives at Santiago, a hundred and 
fifly miles away. 

In the course of the journey the 
railroad crosses the coast plain which 
is filled with the eucalyptus trees, 
little pink apricot trees, great masses 
of mistletoe and other parasites, and 
a large orange buttercup-like flower, 
all of which are so familiar to the 
traveler in California. 

After crossing this plain the rail- 
road climbs over the first chain of the 
Andes Mountains and descends into 
the great interior plain of Chile. The 
scenery among these mountains is 
very beautiful but this chain of the 
Andes is not nearly so high as the 
second chain which lies further to the 
east and many little farms can be 
seen scattered about the mountain 
sides and in the valleys. Far to the 
south with the City of Conception as 
its distributing point is located the 
great agricultural section of Chile. In 
this section, which is being rapidly 
developed at present, the lands are 
both fertile and cheap and great op- 
portunities for money making exist. 

As the railroad leaves the first chain 
of the Andes' and runs along through 
the plain, nothing is seen on either 
side of the track but a boundless ex- 
panse of grazing land, spotted with 
herds of cattle and sheep, until direct- 
ly ahead appears the snow-capped 
peaks of the main chain of the Andes 
Mountains. 

Santiago is located very close tu 
these mountains and as we approached 
them the scenery became as beautiful 
as that in Switzerland. The sun was 
just setting and it threw a glow upon 
the enormous snow covered ranges 



and peaks that rivalled the much 
talked of glow on the Alps. 

After traveling for days down the 
barren west coast, the arrival in San- 
tiago was certainly like getting back 
to God's country, for here is a large 
modern city with beautiful boulevards, 
parks, and plazas with well construct- 
ed buildings and most attractive 
shops and resembling in architecture 
and general appearance certain parts 
of Paris. 

We stopped at the Grand Hotel, 
where the management and what is 
still more important, the Chef, are 
French and where every modern con- 
venience is supplied except heat, which 
is the one thing which cannot be ob- 
tained for love or money in Chile. It 
seems that the winter is so very short 
that it doesn't pay to put in stoves or 
heating plants, and so the people have 
learned to drink their native "fire 
water" and sleep in their overcoats 
and shoes and wait for spring, and 
we were compelled to do as the peo- 
ple do. The two most prevalent dis- 
eases in Chile are pneumonia and 
smallpox, the first being caused large- 
ly by lack of heating appliances and 
the second by the fact that vaccina- 
tion is not required. 

The meals in Chile, as in all of these 
Spanish countries', consist of coffee in 
the morning, breakfast at noon, and 
dinner at about 7 o'clock, and it is 
interesting to note that all business of 
every description closes up at 11 
o'clock and does not open up again 
until 1 o'clock in order to give every- 
body an opportunity to go to break- 
fast. All of the shop keepers put up 
their heavy wooden shutters in front 
of their doors and windows during 
these breakfast hours, failing to realize 
the advertising value of their shop 
window displays during the hours 
when the streets are most crowded. 



-,i-2 



Driving down the beautiful Alameda, 
which is the principle avenue of the 
city, and which is several hundred 
feet wide, finely parked, and lined 
with beautiful buildings, one's breath 
is almost taken away by suddenly 
coming within sight of Santa Lucia 
Park, the most beautiful down-town 
play ground in the world. Upon all the 
plain on which Santiago is situated, 
there is but one elevation and that is 
a great pile of rocks rising up five 
hundred feet in the very heart of the 
city. These rocks' were originally a 
fortress and the city gradually grew 
around them. Finally, at great ex- 
pense these rocks were turned into a 
park find they are now beautified by 



they furnish an ever-changing display 
of the latest Paris clothes and the 
very finest horses and equipages. And 
the horses of Santiago are truly re- 
markable. There is hardly a mounted 
policeman on the street whose horse 
does not look worthy of a blue rib- 
bon, and most of the carriages are 
01 the most beautiful design except 
that the public depot coaches look 
like mourners' wagons. 

The public buildings in Santiago, in- 
cluding the Capitol building of Chile, 
are very attractive in design and a 
number of the newspapers are partic- 
ularly noteworthy as they maintain 
very fine buildings fitted up expressly 
for the convenience of the public. 

Before arriving in Chile, we had 




AN AUGUST SCENE. 



magnificent buildings and arches and 
luxuriant tropical vegetation, and on 
top is an attractive open air theater, 
dance hall, restaurant, and observa- 
tory. From this observatory can be 
seen the numberless streets of Santi- 
ago running far out into the plain 
with here and there a great cathedral 
or large public building and to the 
east towering above Santa Lucia her- 
self are the mighty peaks of the An- 
des. 

The main business streets of the city 
run from the Alameda to the central 
plaza and both in the day and at night 



Chilians, but we had about made up 
our minds that they were not so black 
as they had been painted when we 
heard much of the crookedness of the 
had an experience which sent all of 
cur good opinions scurrying to the 
fcur winds. We were driving along 
the Alameda when a man suddenly 
threw a pocketbook through the win- 
dow of our carriage and then jump- 
ed on a street car which was follow- 
ing a few yards behind us. We open- 
ed the pocket book and found that it 
was filled with money and after hav- 
ing gone about a block and the street 



33 



car having caught up to us the man 
jumped off and claimed the pocket 
book, saying that some one had stolen 
it from him and had thrown it into 
our carriage. We promptly surrend- 
ered the pocket book and were glad 
to get rid of it as we were expecLing 
that some one would "catch us with 
the goods" and have us put in jail for 
thirty odd years. As soon as the man 
got his hands on the pocket book 
he ran so fast that we could not see 
him for dust, and we later on learned 
that he first picked the pocket of a 
passer-by on the Alameda and rushed 




Real August Snow Drifts. 



across the street, throwing the pocket 
book into our carriage so that it would 
not be found on him in case he were 
followed. He then hopped onto the 
street car and when he was sure that, 
no one was on his track he calmly 
presented himself to us as the owner 
who had been robbed. After this ex- 
perience we proceeded to our hotel, 
and there found a letter awaiting us 
which was signed by a Spanish gen- 
tleman who said that he understood 
that we had bought the Longitudinal 
Railroad and who stated that he would 
call upon us at eight o'clock that 
night. 

We decided that this was another 
pocket book game in enlarged form 
and so bought a couple of butcher 
knives and awaited the gentleman in 
the parlors of the hotel. Promptly at 
eight o'clock he arrived with an in- 



terpreter and said that he had about 
five hundred men working upon thu 
right-of-way and wanted to know if 
we wouldn't increase this to a thous- 
and men. We wanted to know if he 
couldn't get three thousand men, and 
he thought he could and we told him 
to go ahead. He said he couldn't stay 
very long because he had to start thai 
night for the works so we told him 
gcod-bye in English and Spanish and 
several other languages and he de- 
ported looking as though he was pleas- 
ed with the way we did business. At 
this stage of the game we were some- 
what puzzled, but the next morning 
brought an explanation. One of the 
large South American exporting firms, 
who were friends of ours, had made 
arrangements for our rooms by tele- 
phone from Valparaiso before we ar- 
rived in Santiago, and prior to oui 
arrival these rooms had been occupied 
by one of the officials of this corpora- 
tion, and he was the gentleman who 
lad actually bought the railroad. The 
contractor knew what rooms he oc- 
cupied, but did not understand his 
name and consequently had come to 
us with his troubles, it took a great 
deal of telegraphing to prevent those 
three thousand men from going to 
work, but after that we were more 
careful how we suspected the natives 
without going into details at length. 

The Chilians are certainly a very 
progressive people and every one of 
them is intensely proud of his coun- 
try, and it is hard to find any place 
in the world a more patriotic nation 
As the Chilian race is made up of an 
amalgamation of the unconquered 
Araucanian Indians and various emi- 
grants from Europe, a large number 
of the family names resemble those 
of European nations, and so we find 
pmong their heroes and great men 
the names of O'Higgins, Cochrane, 
Frat, San Martin, Edwards, Tupper, 
Day, Mackenna, and others. Of their 
heroes, perhaps the most popular is 
Arturo Prat and everything from bar 
rcoms to parks are named after him. 
When war broke out between Chile 
and Peru the latter country was in 
possession of the two formidable iron- 
clads, Huascor and Independencia, and 
these two ships met at Iquique the 
two wooden gunboats, Esmeralda and 
Covadonga, which belonged to Chile. 
Prat was in command of the Esmer- 
alda, which was sunk by the Huascor, 



tut before his ship went down he ram- 
med the Huascor and with six men 
climbed on board and demanded her 
surrender. He was instantly killed by 
the Peruvians, but in the meantime 
the other Chilian ship had manoeuvred 
in such a way as to force the Inde- 
pendencia upon some submerged rocks 
and her loss so weakened Peru that 
the lost control of the sea and thence- 
forth was practically at the mercy of 
Chile. 

It must be confessed that the Chil- 
ians are not very friendly toward the 
United States and their patriotism 
sometimes gets the better of their dis • 
cretion. In measuring the strength of 
Chile with that of the United States, 
one of them called our attendtion to 
the Chilian navy and when we defer- 



four girls who play various stringed 
instruments and sing at the same 
time. 

Santiago is just getting ready for 
the centennial celebration of the in- 
dependence of Chile, and the build- 
ings are being put into repair and 
everything is being cleaned up and 
freshly painted and in all directions 
can be seen many thousands of in- 
candescent lights that will illuminate 
the city like broad day light. This 
electrical display is going to be truly 
remarkable. The buildings are all out- 
lined with lights, the telegraph poles 
are covered with them, and hundreds 
of illuminated arches span the prin- 
cipal streets. The Alameda and Santa 
Lucia park are one solid blaze of 
lights and it is safe to say that at no 




CLIMBING THE MOUNTAINS. 



tntially said something about sixteen 
battleships he said, "do you mean tnose 
sixteen paraffine cans that sailed 
around here?" 

One night we went to see the fa- 
mous Chileno "Cueca Dance." It is 
danced by a young man and young 
woman, each of whom waves a hand- 
kerchief from their uplifted hands, 
and the gestures and poses are not 
unlike some of the dances of the 
Japanese geisha girls, but the music 
is much better than the Japanese va- 
riety, it being furnished by three or 



place in North America has there 
ever been seen such a display of 
electricity. 

Chile is certainly a great little 
country and all appearances point to 
its becoming still greater. 

Until this year Argentina could be 
reached from Chile by way of the 
Andes only during their summer 
months, which correspond to our win- 
ter months, and then it was necessary 
to go over on muleback or in moun- 
tain coaches. During the winter por- 
tion of the year communication across 



the Andes was entirely cut off and in 
traveling from one country to the 
other it was necessary to go around 
the horn. However, this year the 
great Andes tunnel was opened up 
and trains have been running through 
with more or less regularity ever 
since. Only a short time before we 
crossed a train was caught in a 
snowstorm high up in the mountains 
and delayed for eight days, and so it 
was with some little trepidation that 




Eating Home Made Ice Cream. 



we set out from Santiago on our way 
to the Argentine. 

We left the capitol of Chile at 
about six o'clock at night and traveled 
on a very finely appointed train until 
about 10:30 o'clock, at which time we 
arrived at Los Andes, a little town 
situated in the foothills of the Andes. 
Here the train stopped as they do not 
run late at night, and we went to a 
little railroad hotel built at the side 
of the tracks, and which was very 
comfortable except for the cold. This 
experience reminded us somewhat of 
Shan-Hai-Kuan in Manchuria, where 
we stopped over night in a similar 
hotel because our train did not run 
after dark for fear the dragons might 
get it. 

At six o'clock in the morning we 
were awakened, given a cup of coffee 
and bundled on board the narrow 
guage railroad train which climbs up 
through the mountains. It was a 
beautiful sunshiny morning and as 
we crawled along through the valleys 



we were interested in the little 
huts in which the natives live. 
These huts are made entirely of 
reeds and are doubtless very com- 
fortable during the greater part of 
the year, but in the chilly morning 
air . it was noticeable that there was 
a fire burning on the ground in the 
center of each hut and that the entire 
family was sticking pretty close to 
the smoke. 

Constantly climbing higher with ev- 
ery little while a rack and pinion sec- 
tion, we soon rose above the line of 
vegetation and plunged in amongst 
the most stupendous scenery on the 
continent. At one time it seemed as 
though we were going to run straight 
into the face of a tremendous cliff, 
but on nearer approach it could be 
seen that a very narrow crack sepe- 
rated the mountain into two parts 
and across this our train ran on a 
little concrete span which bore our 
weight over a thousand feet above 
the bottom of the canyon. This pe- 
culiar formation is what is known as 
a cooling crack. At the time these 
mountains were thrown up by vol- 
canic action they began gradually to 
cool and this cooling process led to 
the contraction that produced this 
crack in the side of the mountain which 
finally came in so handy for the rail- 
road builders. Winding around 
great horseshoes and always climb- 
ing higher we finally ran into the 
snow fields where the snow was 
banked up on both sides of the track 
higher than our train, and after tra- 
versing numerous tunnels we finally 
stopped at a little lake almost 
■ eleven thousand feet above the sea, 
surrounded by great glaciers and en- 
ormous masses of snow and ice and 
on all sides of us towered the peaks 
of the higher Andes, a great many of 
which reach the enormous height of 
20,000 feet, and one of which — Mount 
Aconcagua — over 23,000 feet high, is 
the tallest peak on the western hem- 
isphere. The grandeur of the scenery 
here among the great peaks and 
snowfields of the Andes can be equal- 
ed only among the Himalayas of Asia. 

Our train was now almost as high 
as the top of Mount Blanc in Switz- 
erland. A short distance from this lit- 
tle lake we entered the great tunnel 
which pierces the Andes range, and 
in ten minutes we emerged on the other 



side of the mountain and in the Ar- 
gentine Republic. 

The descent from this point was 
rugged and very beautiful, but ex- 
ceedingly cold, as we had run into the 
outskirts of a snow storm and when 



we finally arrived about dark at the 
city of Mendoza, where we were to 
change cars, we were very glad to 
get our feet pretty close to a welcome 
fire and indulge in a few cups of hot 
coffee. 



ARGENTINE AND BUENOS AIRES. 



Buenos Aires, Argentine, September, 
1910 — 'The trip from Mendoza across the 
six hundred miles of pampas to Buenos 
Aires is made in a first class modern 
train with sleeping cars, Which, how- 
ever, are exceedingly dusty, and takes 
about twenty-two hours' time. The view 
for this whole twenty-two hours is ex- 
actly the same, absolutely flat, rich, 
black plains extending to the horizon 
With never a sign of a rise or eleva- 
tion and with few trees, but literally 
covered for the whole six hundred 
miles with herds of magnificent cattle 
and droves' of fine looking sheep. Here, 
indeed, is a country whose agricultural 
wealth is beyond all of the wildest ex- 
pectations of the traveler, and one does 
not travel far across the Argentine 
plain before the great republic of the 
south has won his profound respect. 
For hours our train traveled through 
this wonderful agricultural country re- 
sembling so much the western part of 
the United States, and occasionally we 
passed through little towns and vil- 
lages where could be seen clusters of 
picturesque cow-boys and ranchmen. 

At one place on the trans-Siberian 
railroad the train traverses an exact 
mathematical straight line for eighty 
miles and we thought that this was 
very wonderful, but at one place be- 
tween Mendoza and Buenos Aires this 
Argentine railroad runs a hundred and 
seventy miles without varying a frac- 
tion of a degree from a straight line. 
It can be truthfully said that at no 
time during the entire trip across the 
plains were we out of sight of cattle 
or sheep, and the monotony was only 
varied by the large quantities of wild 



game. 

In all directions could be seen wild 
ducks and other birds more or less 
familiar to us and beside these we saw 
great numbers of a large bright pink 
bird somewhat resembling a crane. 
Then on all sides there were numer- 
ous hares, many of which were as 
large as small lambs, and it was in- 
teresting to watch them run away 
from the train. But perhaps the most 
surprising sight of all was the wild 
South American ostrich. These great 
birds could be seen by the thousands 
running in among the cattle and many 
of them came up very close to the 
railroad tracks as we passed by. 

All in all this trip across the pam- 
pas of Argentine impressed us with 
the wonderful richness of the country 
and the great opportunities existing 
there. 

We had no sooner arrived in Buenos 
Aires than we were convinced that We 
had come to out- of the world's great- 
est cities. We drove to the Plaza Hotel 
which is a great fire-proof skyscraper, 
resembling in every way our great 
New York hotels, managed by the Ritz- 
Carlton company of London, and pos- 
sessing such luxurious appointments 
as to entitle it to be rated as one of 
the world's finest hostelries. 

In Buenos Aires we found all of the 
life and beauty of Paris, the Avineda 
de Mayo resembling the famous Paris- 
ian boulevards except that it is finer 
than they are, the Florida which is 
the best shopping street, reminding 
one somewhat of the crowd in the 
Rue de la Paix, and the park known 
as Palermo with its magnificent race 



yr 



track and artistic little park restau- 
rants bringing to one's mind the beau- 
ties of the Paris Be is. And then there 
are the many vistas and squares that 
take one's memory back to Paris and 
besides these, the architecture, the 
little sidewalk cafes, the characteristic 
boulevard news-stands, the little one- 
horse cabs, the Latin characteristics 
of the people, and above all, the 
clothes remind one of La Belle France. 
However, surrounded by all of these 
reminders of Latin Europe, there is 
noticed another element which is not 
found on the other side of the Atlantic. 
This is the spirit of Americanism and 
is evidenced by the hustle and mitia- 



In the central section of the city the 
buildings are higher and the new capi- 
tol building, somewhat resembling our 
own and located in a newly created 
plaza of great beauty, looms up prom- 
inently in the near distance and not 
far from it is seen the opera house, the 
interior of which is unequalled in the 
world. Down at the other end of the . 
Avineda can be seen the large gov- 
ernment offices and nearby is being 
constructed a real American sky- 
scraping office building. 

To an American, it is surprising to 
note that there are only about fifteen 
large chimneys within the range of 




ON THE ARGENTINE PAMPAS. 



tive of the people. Here, old time^ 
worn customs do not count for much 
and the people are anxious to try any- 
thing new providing it is better than 
the old. 

From the roof of a ten-story build- 
ing, we looked out over this city of a 
million and a quarter inhabitants, and 
a solid mass of buildings extended out 
in every direction as far as the eye 
could reach. The great area covered 
by the city is doubtless due to the fact 
that the European style of architec- 
ture predominates, and consequently 
the buildings are not very high, but 
extend over a large amount of land. 



vision. This is due to the fact that 
the Argentinas manufacture almost 
nothing and immediately impresses a 
practical business man with the great 
trade opportunities where over a mil- 
lion people are clustered together with 
no factories to supply the necessities 
and luxuries of life. Lining the River 
Plate can be seen the docks and huge 
grain elevators .and off to the West ex- 
tend miles of beautiful residences and 
parks while far off in the distance to 
the east can be dimly seen the city of 
La Plata which proved the ruin of 
the Barings of London. "We afterward 
visited La Plata and found it a rather 



38 



slee v old town of about seventy-five 
thousand people. 

La Plata is the capitol of the pro- 
vince of Buenos Aires and scattered all 
through it are the magnificent build- 
ings of the provincial government, and 
there are many beautiful plazas and 
boulevards. These buildings and 
boulevards caused the famous Baring 
failure. It seems that the Barings 
were the bankers for the Argentine 
Republic and at that time there was 
great rivalry between the cities of La 
Plata and Buenos Aires. Each city 
felt that it was entitled to be the 
capitol of the Argentine but La Plata 
being located further down the river 
toward the sea, the bankers felt that 
it was in a position eventually to sur- 
pass Buenos Aires. As Buenos Aires 
was then the capitol of the Republic 
and I a Plata had been made the cap- 
itol nf the province, the Barings ad- 
var "" the money to build the impos- 




Plaza Hotel, Buenos Aires 



ing buildings and lay out the beauti- 
ful boulevards thinking that the mag- 
nificence of La Plata would put it so 
far ahead of Buenos Aires as to make 
of it the greatest city in the Argentine 
and eventually the capitol of the na- 
tion. However, bad times came upon 
the financial world, and the Barings 
being unable to sell the La Plata se- 
curities, failed with a crash that was 



heard round the world. This was the 
end of La Plata and the beautiful 
buildings stand there today as monu- 
ments to a scheme that didn't work. 

The restaurants, cafes, theaters, 
shops, department stores, etc., in 
Buenos Aires are probably as modern 
as can be found in the world, and the 
people are remarkably well-dressed 
and well-groomed. There are no bull 
fights or similar public amusements, 
but the national lottery is much in 
evidence and in every money chang- 
er's shop and cigarette stand the tick- 
ets can be procured. 

At the present time the traffic prob- 
lem is uppermost in the minds of the 
officials and arrangements have been 
made looking toward the construction 
of a subway system which will great- 
ly relieve the crush in the down-town 
streets. 

One of the principle sights of Buenos 
Aires' is the magnificent home of the 
newspaper known as La Prensa. This 
famous paper, recognized as one of 
the greatest publications in the world, 
maintains this large building prim- 
arily for the benefit of the public. It 
has beautiful reading rooms, writing 
rooms, and rest rooms, and furnishes 
medical treatment and legal advice 
free of charge to all who apply. In 
addition to these conveniences, the 
building is furnished with magnificent 
banquet rooms and beautiful private 
apartments which the paper puts at 
the disposal of visiting personages of 
note. La Prensa is truly the owner of 
the greatest newspaper building in the 
world. 

The great world's fair being held at 
Buenos Aires would be a huge suc- 
cess were it held under one roof so to 
speak. As there was not an available 
piece or' ground located within reach 
of the center of the city that would 
be large enough to accommodate the 
exposition, the Argentinas selected five 
different sites within the city and di- 
vided the fair into five sections. This 
was a mistake as it is not conven- 
ient to get from one section to the 
other and a separate admission is 
charged to each section. The indi- 
vidual exhibits are of the highest or- 
der and the buildings are in keeping 
with our ideas of world's fair struc- 
tures, and had the whole exhibition 
been put together it would have been 
a great show. The United States was 



/airly well represented in the various 
industrial sections and also had a good 
collection of pictures in the art sec- 



L 



I 






I 




Home of famous Argentine news- 
paper, "La Prensa." 



ticn. 

This art section was particularly 
fine, representing as it did, paintings 



fvom nearly all of the principal coun- 
tries of the world. The success of 
this section was due largely to tho 
individual efforts of Paul B. Cham- 
bers, the vice president of the exhibit, 
who escorted us through the galleries 
and paid us the compliment of having 
the band play Yankee Doodle and The 
Star Spangled Banner. 

One day we attended the races and 
they were very exciting and a huge 
crowd was present. As soon as the 
races were over, everybody from the 
highest to the lowest climbed into a 
carriage and joined the great parade 
in Pale.rmo. Here for an hour the car- 
riages drive slowly up and down, some- 
times four abreast, each line driving 
in the opposite direction to the next 
line and furnishing a great display. 
While there were many fine horses and 
carriages in line, nevertheless it did 
not seem to us that Buenos Ayres 
quite lived up to its reputation in this 
regard for the horses of Santiago 
seemed to us to be somewhat super- 
ior. 

Before leaving the land of the Ar* 
gentinas, we had the pleasure of at- 
tending a reception given by the North 
American colony to United States 
Minister Sherrill, and here we met ths 
leading Americans located in Buenos 
Ayres. There are about two hundred 
cf them and they are all high-class, 
good-natured, prosperous looking peo- 
ple, who treated us so cordially and 
made us feel so much at home that it 
almost made us feel homesick when 
we sailed from Buenos Aires for 
Uruguay. 



AMERICAN TRADE OPPORTUNITIES 
IN THE ARGENTINE. 



Buenos Aires, September, 1910. — In 
Buenos Aires we have ha.d the oppor- 
tunity of interviewing softie of the most 
prominent Argentinas, together with 
leading Americans and influential for- 
eigners, and their opinions lead Us to 



belieVe that the American manufac- 
turer has a great field open to him in 
this country which he is nevertheless^ 
failing to take advantage of. 

Here is a magnificent country of 
ehortnous wealth and with a constant- 



40 



ly increasing purchasing power. It is 
true that no such population is found 
here as in China and the oriental fields 
for trade development, but on the oth- 
er hand it would seem as though our 
manufacturers would do well to exploit 
this field first and take care of China 
afterwards. The Argentine and South 
America are nearer to our shores than 
China, and what is most important, 
these countries lie within our own 
sphere of political influence while 
China is under so many conflicting 
political influences that we cannot ex- 
pect our business interests to be as 
well protected there as in South 
America. Furthermore, the opening of 
the Panama Canal will materially in- 
crease American political influence in 
this part of the world. Then there is 
the most important fact of all to be 
considered — the character of the peo- 
ple. In China we have a people whose 
ideas are entirely alien to our own, and 
it is necessary to first educate them 
and create a demand for our goods. 
On the other hand, we find in South 
America the civilization of Europe 
combined with some American ideas, 
and here there already exists a press- 
ing demand for the necessities of life 
and also for all of the luxuries. Add to 
this demand the fact that the Argen- 
tinas do not manufacture to any ex- 
tent, and it is readily seen that some- 
body must supply the goods and there 
is no good reason in the world why 
America should not be the nation to do 
so. 

Of course, some American manufac- 
turers feel that they cannot compete 
against -England and Germany in these 
countries because of the high labor 
cost in the United States but in the 
great re-adjustment of prices and con- 
ditions of labor and production which 
must unquestionably take place in our 
country sooner or later, this disad- 
vantage under which the American 
manufacturer claims to suffer at pres- 
ent will most certainly be minimized 
and in the meantime proper methods, 
superior goods, and superior service 
will unquestionably bring many orders 
to America that now go to England 
and, particularly, to Germany. 

In this connection it is interesting 
to note that America is already some- 
what over-produced and that in the 
future it will constantly become more 



necessary for our manufacturers to 
find a foreign outlet for their produc- 
tion, and also from the standpoint of 
our trade balance it will constantly 
become more necessary for us to ex- 
port manufactured goods to take the 
place of our exports of foodstuffs which 
from now on will doubtless constantly 
decrease. 

The present economic position of our 
country is, indeed, an interesting top- 
ic for discussion but in the short space 
of a newspaper article it is of course 
impossible to go into the details which 
make up the present situation. Suf- 
fice to say that in the past, the Ameri- 
can manufacturer has not made a 
great success of the export trade be- 
cause of the fact that he has not had 
to go out of his own country to find 
a market, but in the future conditions 
are going to be otherwise, and we be- 
lieve that the American manufactur- 
er, as soon as he learns the game, will 
excel in it just as he has excelled in 
every undertaking which he has seri- 
ously attempted. 

In Argentine, the most friendly feel- 
ing now exists toward Americans, this 
friendliness having increased particu- 
larly during the past year or so due 
to the popularity, tact and business 
ability of United states Minister Sher- 
rill. The strong points of Mr. Sher- 
rill make up for a lot of the weak 
points of our diplomatic and consular 
service elsewhere, and the spirit of 
closer friendship which he has en- 
gendered has been followed by very 
large trade increases, the reports for 
each year since Mr. Sherrill has been 
our representative in Argentina show- 
ing heavy increases of American goods 
purchased. 

Now that our friendship with the 
Argentine is on such a firm basis, it 
would seem that the time is ripe for 
us to remove some of the difficulties 
in the way of our trade with this na- 
tion, and let it be understood, by the 
way, that every word in this article 
referring to Argentine is equally ap- 
plicable to a more or less extent to 
each of the other principal nations on 
the South American continent. 

The first and foremost difficulty in 
the way of our trade with Argentina 
is the lack of transportation facilities 
and the absence of a decent mail ser- 
vice. There is only one line of ships 
sailing from New York to this part of 
the world, and that is maintained by 



41 



£h English company, and the accom- 
modations are poor, the sailings very 
infrequent, and the time consumed en 
route out of all proportion to the dis- 
tance traversed. Furthermore, the mail 
service is abominable. Thus, if an 
American salesman receives an order 
in Beunos Aires and advises his firm 
by letter and they promptly pack and 
ship the goods, it will be from ter to 
twelve weeks after the order is placed 
before the customer in the Argentine 
receives the articles that he has pur- 
chased. Because of these conditions, it 
is necessary for American representa- 
tives to use the cable service which is 
\ery expensive and is an unsatisfac- 
tory method of transacting business. 
Most of our mail is sent to France or 
England, and then forwarded to the 
United States, and it is a matter of 
considerable shame to our countrymen 
that it is necessary to send the Amer- 
ican mails into the Eastern Hemis- 
phere in order to get them from one 
point to another, toth of which are 
ir. the Western Hemisphere. 

We have been against the subsidi- 
zation of our merchant marine, be- 
lieving that other methods would be 
more effective in putting our flag on 
the high seas, but if a subsidy or any- 
thing else will put a swift, frequent, 
and regular shipping service between 
New York and The Argentine, we, to- 
gether with all Americans who are 
familiar with conditions as they ex- 
ist, would most certainly be for it. 

The next most important factor in 
the establishment of American trade 
on a firm basis in South America is 
the organization of an American bank. 
This subject has been touched upon 
in every country we have visited, and 
in Buenos Aires particularly, the need 
for such an institution is prominently 
in the minds of the American colony. 

At present the banking business is 
handled entirely on European lines, 
and it is difficult to purchase bills on 
New York except through the foreign 
banks at high rates, and in most 
countries bills against New York are 
not looked upon as good payment, 
but must be sold at disadvantageous 
rates and payments made by means 
of bills on London. Furthermore, as is 
to be expected, the influence of the 
great banking institutions of South 
America is exerted entirely on the 
side of the European manufacturer. 



and the American not only has no 
bank to influence business or handle 
his remittances, but he has no trust- 
worthy channel through which he can 
obtain credit information. Not only 
is a bank necessary in South America 
but it will pay, and in time, under a 
tactful, energetic, and careful man- 
agement, it will pay handsomely. 

Another reason why American trade 
is not larger in South America is the 
ignorance of the manufacturer in re- 
gard to this continent. A large num- 
ber of our business men do not know 
the difference between Buenos Aires 
and Rio de Janiero, and could not tell 
you v/ithout looking it up, which is 
in the Argentine and which is in Bra- 
zil. What we need is to have the boss 
come down to South America himself 
and look the field over carefully. He 
will then realize that the purchasers 
in these countries are just as par- 
ticular about the goods they buy as 
are the people in our own country, 
and he will stop sending out the sec- 
ond-class articles that he now fre- 
quently ships down south for the use 
of what he terms "the natives." 

We visited a number of stores that 
were advertising American goods for 
sale and were astounded at the dis- 
play of rubbish which had been sent 
down from the States. There was a 
store full of flimsy furniture that was 
for sale at outrageous prices, and that 
would not have been taken home by 
American purchasers even if given 
away as souvenirs. 

This sort of trash comes to be look- 
ed upon as "American goods," and 
the man who sent it down here ought 
to be expatriated. When the boss 
himself visits this part of the world 
f~e will learn that he must change his 
methods of selling goods and become 
more closely acquainted with the 
country. 

At the present time, the average 
manufacturer picks out the salesman 
who is not good enough to sell goods 
at home and ships him down to The 
Argentine with a box of samples', and 
the salesman without any knowledge 
of the Spanish language and without 
any insight into the wants of the peo- 
ple, breezes into an establishment, 
spreads his samples all over the place, 
and through a poor interpreter in the 
hustling American way, tries to sell 
a bill of gc ods on the spot. If the Ar- 



gentine merchant insists that he can- 
not sell soap unless it is very highly 
scented because his people like it that 
way, the salesman generally tells him 
that he does not know what he is 
talking about, and proceeds to inform 
him as to how many million bars of 
that soap were sold in Missouri last 
year. 

Now, the American merchant will 
have to change his tactics. Instead of 
picking out the poorest salesman he 
has, he must pick out the best man 
he can obtain in America; a man of 
the utmost tact, patience, and common 
sense and a man who will study the 
customs, manners, and peculiarities of 
the people, and who will go to The 
Argentine and temporarily become an 
Argentina. 

Some firms employ foreigners to 
represent them outside of the United 
States, but it seems to us that Amer- 
ican goods should be represented by 
Americans, and there is not a better 
representative in the world than the 
American providing that he is a high- 
class American, and not an unsuccess- 
ful salesman who cannot make a liv- 
ing at home. It is absolutely essential 
that every salesman coming to this 
part of the world speak the Spanish 
language, and if he cannot do this 1 , it 
is a waste of money to send him five 
miles out of New York harbor. After 
the right salesman is selected and sent 
to The Argentine, he should be given 
sufficient money to advertise the goods 
he is trying to push, for these people 
are great advertisers,, and furthermore 
the boss at home should not forget all 
about him but should do all in his 
power to help get the goods before the 
Argentine public. 

The world's fair at Buenos Aires 
showed that the manufacturers at 
home were not doing their part along 
this 1 line, for while they finally man- 
aged after a great deal of hammering 
from this end of the line to send down 
fairly creditable exhibits they failed to 
have anybody here to properly look 
after their goods, and as a result, the 
finish was marred and scratched off a 
number of the articles and they made 
a poor display along side of the great 
exhibits of England and Germany, all 
of which were covered with bright new 
paint and were most attractively dis- 
played. 



The manufacturer at home does lots 
of funny things in connection with this 
trade. One Argentina told us with a 
laugh, of his experience with one of 
our large firms. He had received some 
goods which were not according to 
sample and was compelled to write 
several times before he finally got an 
adjustment. In closing the matter, he 
wrote to the American firm and told 
them of the annoyance that he had 
been caused, and further made note of 
the fact that he had been compelled 
to spend thirty cents in postage in 
settling a little account of a few dol- 
lars. 

The American concern promptly sent 
him thirty cents in United States post- 
age stamps. Now, what the American 
firm thought that the merchant could 
do with United States postage stamps 
in the Argentine has not yet been ex- 
plained, but it is just these little tiling 
that count down here. 

Another complaint that is as old 
as American trade itself, is in connec- 
tion with the way in which we pack 
our goods. We are accustomed to al- 
low the office boy to do our packing 
at home, but if the boss would come 
down here and see his goods hauled 
out of the hold of a ship by a derrick, 
swung out over the side, and then 
dropped in a lighter as it rose on the 
crest of a great swell, he would feel 
like going home and having his ship- 
ping crates made of cast iron. A few 
years ago American goods were not 
ordered down here because when they 
arrived they usually consisted of a 
pile of splinters, but this is changing 
for the better very rapidly now. How 
ever, there is still room for larre im- 
provement. 

Our competition in South America 
is largely from the British and the 
Germans, the British selling the high- 
er grade of goods, and the Germans 
the lower grades. Both of these na- 
tionalities have had large experience 
n all parts of the world, and they know 
how to go about this business in the 
light way. They both use every en- 
ergy and every argument to belittle 
American trade, and although we laugh 
a f the slow-going Englishman, never- 
theless, he knows what he is doiny 
just about all the time and he often 
manages to beat us out of a contract 
in such a quiet way that we do not 
realize how it all happened. 

The Germans are more unreliable 



43 



than the English and in their tactics 
sometimes resemble the Japanese. 
However, they send out clever men 
who speak good Spanish and who 
know enough to entertain their pros- 
pective customers and get to be good 
personal friends with them before they 
even broach matters of business. They 
know that patience and care not to 
offend are of the utmost importance 
in South America. 

The difficulties, real and fancied, in 
the way of entering this market have 
led most American firms to place their 
goods in the hands of large commission 
merchants located on the ground. This 
method would doubtless prove fairly 
satisfactory iTi view of present condi- 
tions, were it not for the fact that it 
is said many of these commission 
houses do not honestly represent their 
clients. It is pointed out that some 
Icuses represent two hundred or more 
American firms but do not actually 
push more than ten or twelve lines. 
They sign up with the rest in order 
to keep them out of the field, and be- 
cause only an occasional order is re- 
ceived the American manufacturer gets 
the idea that trade in his line does not 
exist. As a matter of fact, most of 
these commission houses are of British 
or other foreign nationality, and while 
sending most of the desirable business 
to their own countrymen, they sell just 
enough of our goods to keep us off of 
the map and the head of the concern 
at home never comes down here and 
so never finds out. 

One other factor must be taken into 
consideration, and that is the standard 
of business morals is not high. Many 
contracts are based largely on graft, 
and dishonesty among individuals is 
rather common. This disadvantage, 
however, can be largely overcome by 
familiarity with the people and cus- 



toms as in our own country where such 
things are certainly not unknown, we 
are able to keep them from entering 
seriously into our business affairs by 
knowing how to avoid them. 

Believing that as the years go by our 
country will be forced more and more 
into the export trade, it would seem 
that we as a nation should do all in 
our power to build a solid foundation 
for our future world-trade, and along 
this line let us suggest the good that 
would come from the establishment of 
a national school "' diplomacy as has 
been several times suggested by emi- 
nent men, and the further extension of 
the principles of civil service to our 
consular organization. 

Another matter that seems to us to 
be of the utmost importance to Amer- 
ica today, is the teaching of Spanish 
in all of the public schools. Not only 
will the future development of our for- 
eign trade demand a knowledge of the 
Spanish language, but this being tho 
universal language of all our newly ac- 
quired colonial possessions together 
with such countries as Cuba and Pan- 
ama which are so closely connected 
with our political interests, it would 
seem that a knowledge of Spanish 
will certainly prove of great advan- 
tage to the majority of the men of 
the coming generation. 

All indications point to the ultimate 
development of the American export 
trade, and with a considerable knowl- 
edge of American goods and American 
methods, and with also some famili- 
arity with the capabilities of various 
ether competitors amon ' the nations, 
it seems certain to us that after a 
reasonable term of years, the words 
"Made in the United States" will be 
more often seen than the like phrase 
of any other nation. 



PROM BUENOS AIRES TO RIO DE JANEIRO. 



Rio de Janeiro, October ISlO.— At 
Buenos Aires we boarded the north 
bound steamer which had just arriv- 



ed from its frigid trip around through 
the straits of Magellen. The passen- 
gers oh board reported the straits as 



resembling the usual descriptions of 
the north or south Poles for as they 
came through just at the end of the 
winter season, the valleys and moun- 
tains of Patagonia and Tierra del Fue- 
go were covered with great masses of 
ice and snow. 

It is said that in the summer time 
this part of the continent becomes 
very comfortable to live in but never- 
theless, the fact that it lies close to 
the Antarctic circle and that this is 
the stormiest land in the world, makes 
one hesitate about recommending it 
as a summer resort. 

In Tierra del Fuego there live what 
are' considered the lowest type of hu- 
man beings in the world. They exist 
in much the same manner as animals, 
many of them wearing hardly any 
clothes even in the midst of winter. As 
the ship came out of the straits on 
the Atlantic side, it was forced to slow 
down because of the near approach of 
a huge iceberg, the presence of which 
made it necessary to use caution in 
handling the ship. After a day's 
steaming, the Falkland Islands were 
reached where a short stop was made 
for coal. These islands have the dis- 
advantage of an exceedingly stormy 
climate, but nevertheless they contain 
a considerable amount of good sheep 
grazing land which is now practically 
all taken up by ranchers. 

These islands belong to Great Brit- 
ain, and this is consequently one of 
the very few places in the southern 
part of the Western Hemisphere where 
the flag of a European nation flies. In 
the past, these islands have been un- 
der many different flags, and it is in- 
teresting to note that at one time the 
stars and stripes were hoisted here. 
This was shortly t.fter the Revolu- 
tionary war at which time everybody 
had deserted the Falklands except a 
few American whalers who raised the 
American flag. However, the United 
States did not consider these islands 
of any value whatever, and did not 
take any steps to occupy them per- 
manently, and a number of years later 
the English took possession of them. 

From the Falklands to Buenos Aires, 
where we joined the ship, the voyage 
was a cold and stormy one with little 
to excite the interest of the traveller 
except the great white bird called the 
albatross, a number of which followed 
the ship for a long distance. 

From Buenos Aires, we crossed the 



La Plata river to Montevideo in Uru- 
guay. At this point the river is one 
hundred and twenty miles across and 
is much the color of the Yellow Sea 
due to the mud that is brought down 
by the Uruguay and Parana rivers. 

It will be recalled by the readers of 
the Herald that the Uruguay river 
runs north along the west boundary of 
Uruguay while the Parana flows north 
through the Argentine unt:i it is join- 
ed by the Paraguay river which takes 
its course through the heart of the 
Republic of Paraguay. 

A Difficult Journey. 

Practically the only way to reach 
Paraguay at the present time is by 
the route which traverses these rivers, 
and although it is a long and diffi- 
cult journey, nevertheless it is said to 
be one of great interest to the travel- 
ler. Paraguay has been so isolated 
that little has been known of the coun- 
try or its products except for the Yerbe 
Mate or Paraguayan tea and the won- 
derful Paraguayan lace. 

At one time Paraguay seemed to be 
making considerable strides ahead but 
at this time came forward Francisco 
Lopez, a corrupt, and unscrupulous dic- 




San Paulo Municipal Theater. 

tator, who imagined himself a second 
Napoleon Bonaparte, and who pro- 
ceeded to get into a war with Brazil, 
Uruguay, and the Argentine. For six 
years he fought these nations and was 
then finally captured and killed, but 
crdy after his country had been ruin- 
ed and most of her inhabitants de- 
stroyed. When the war began, there 
were over 1,300,000 people in Paraguay, 
and when it was over there were only 
220,000 left, and these were mostly 
women, children and old men. 

During the last few years, Paraguay 
has begun to show signs of returning 
political importance, and Asuncion, the 
only city in the nation, is now taking 



45 



on quite a modern appearance. The 
development of railroads is opening up 
various sections of the country, and it 
is said that wonderful opportunities 
exist for obtaining the very highest 
class of producing land for practically 
nothing. 

The trip across the Le Plata river 
took almost the entire night, and in 
the morning we landed at Montevideo. 
Here, we found a fine large city with 
substantial buildings and the usual 
attractive parks and plazas. 

The city is spread out over a great 
amount of land, and is bounded on 
two sides by the sea, making it a very 
healthful place, and one that is very 
popular during the summer months 
with both the Uruguayians and the 
Argentinas. The noise and hurry of 
Buenos Aires are missed in Montevi- 
deo, but nevertheless it is an interest- 
ing city to visit, and one is attracted 
by the various nationalities met on the 
streets, the cosmopolitan nature of the 
.shops, and the charms of the bath- 
ing beaches. 

Uruguay, of which Montevideo is the 
capital, is one of the most interesting 
little countries in the world. Practic- 
ally all of its land is taken up by 
ranchers and fruit growers, and its 
resources along these lines are enor- 
mous. Its past history has been filled 
with revolution and wars, but it al- 
ways managed to recuperate rapidly 
and is now covered with a network 
of railroads, and seems to have en- 
tered upon a period of peace and pros- 
perity. 

There are a number of large foreign 
enterprises in this country, the best 
known of which is the famous Liebig 
Extract Co. But few people in Europe 
and America, who enjoy the Liebig 
Beef Extract, know that it comes from 
Uruguay. The government of this 
little country is now fairly stable but 
it suffers, of course, from that com- 
mon complaint in South America, 
graft, which usually takes the form, 
among others, of pensions or gifts to 
the friends of the men in power. 

Sailing north from Montevideo, we 
encountered a good old-fashioned 
South Atlantic "blow" which piled the 
water up in big chunks and sent most 
of the passengers scurrying to their 
cabins where they remained for two 
days. During this storm we were driv- 
en somewhat out of our course, and 
as a result were twenty-four hours 



late in arriving at Santos, Brazil, 
which was our destination. 

Approaching the green shore of Bra- 
zil, which was covered with palms and 
tropical plants, we passed a beautiful 
seaside resort with large hotels and 
pavilions, and steamed about four 
miles up a winding tropical river to 
the city of Santos. After having 
grown accustomed to continual shiv- 
ers during our trip through the more 
southern countries, we were, indeed, 
glad to feel the hot sun of Brazil, and 
to again be able to don silk clothes 
and Panama hats. At this port, for 
the first time since we left Panama, 
we were able to land without the use 
of small boats, for here have been 
constructed first class modern docks. 

Santos is the greatest coffee ship- 
ping port in the world, and all that 
one sees or smells there, is coffee. The 
ships at the docks are loading it on 
board, the warehouses all over the 
city are filled with it, the colored la- 
borers are carrying it, the ox-carts 
are hauling it, the people are drinking 
it in the cafes, and the little berries 
are scattered here and there over the 
streets and sidewalks. 

Santos, once' known far and wide 
as one of the most unhealthful places 
in the world, is now clean and sani- 
tary, but aside from its pretty loca- 
tion on the river bank surrounded as 
it is by hills and mountains, and its 
importance as a coffee port, not for- 
getting, however, its typical Portu- 
guese architecture, Santos is not es- 
pecially attractive to the traveler. 

From here, we traveled by way of 
the famous San Paulo railroad to the 
inland city of San Paulo which is one 
of the largest and most important 
places in the republic of Brazil. This 
San Paulo railroad, which winds its 
way over a mountain chain, is one of 
the finest railways in the world owing 
to the fact that the company is only 
permitted to pay a specified rate of 
dividends, and as they have earned 
huge profits they have put back into 
the road bed all of the earnings over 
the permitted dividends. 

The road bed and rolling stock are 
kept in magnificent condition, all of 
the hills being drained by means of a 
most elaborate system of concrete gut- 
ters in order to keep the rain off of 
the right-of-way, and many of the 
mountain sides are paved with stone 



in order to do away with the danger 
of possible land slides. "Wherever the 
railroad runs over a mountain, an end- 
less cable is so arranged in the center 
of the track that a train going up on 
one track and also a train coming 
down on the other can both be at- 
tached to the same cable. Then the 
schedule is so arranged that whenever 
a train goes up the mountain, one al- 
so comes down, and they thus balance 
each other on the mountain side and 
make it much easier for both locomo- 
tives. 

The trip to San Paulo is very fine 
from a scenic standpoint, and the 
country and vegetation on all sides re- 
srmble very much that of Cuba. 

Arriving at San Paulo, we were sur- 



ular rows of ornamental trees which 
are trimmed in a uniform way, and 
help enormously in giving the place ;i 
dressed-up look. 

The truly magnificent public build- 
ings, palatial residences of the owners 
of the coffee fazendas, and the crowd- 
ed and modern business districts filled 
with tram cars and taxicabs, make the 
stranger open his eyes with astonish - 
ment. 

One of the odd things about Brazil 
is the currency system. The standard 
of value is the "reis" but it takes 
3,200 of them to make one of our dol- 
lars, and consequently this is one of 
the greatest places in the world for a 
poor man to acquire the feelings of a 
millionaire. It is hard to remember 




MONROE PALACE AND AVENUE OBELISK 
(Where Pan-American Congress Was Held.) 



prised to find such a fine modern city. 
Every familiar sight of the large cities 
of the world is here encountered, and 
prosperity seems to abound on all 
sides. A fact worthy the attention of 
our North American cities is the in- 
terest which these South American 
people take in civic beauty. Practi- 
cally every street in the city of San 
Paulo is lined on both sides wilh reg- 



that a reis is not a dollar, and there- 
fore it is easy to understand the feel- 
ing of exhilaration which we experi- 
enced when we slipped 2,500 reis to 
the porter who looked after our bag- 
gage, paid 15,000 to the boy who 
ran our taxicab, and presently signed 
a dinner check for 17,000 more. 

The people of San Paulo, or Pauli - 
tas as they are called, are evidently 



47 



very resourceful. As an illustration o' 
this characteristic, we were told about 
a company that was formed to start 
a "bacon factory," as they expressed 
it. After they had constructed a large 
plant, they commenced buying hogs, 
but after a few months they had killed 
all of the hogs for miles around, and 
were forced to close down because of 
lack of raw material. For a very short 
time, it looked dark for the stock- 
holders, but the board of directors 
promptly turned the bacon factory in- 
to a brewery and to use th.. words of 
our informant, it is now a "howling 
success." 

Among the odd sights of San Paulo 
are the little one-horse, two-wheeled 
public vehicles called "tilburys" and 
the great number of umbrellas seen. 
Notwithstanding the fact that the sun 
may be shining brightly, everybody has 
an umbrella tucked under his arm. We 
learned to respect this custom, how- 
ever, for as we were walking along 
the street about three blocks from our 
hotel, the bottom suddenly fell out of 
the sky and the proverbial drowned 
rat must have looked dry by the side 
of us. 

The people of Brazil differ from the 
people of the other South American 
countries in that they speak Portu- 
guese instead of Spanish, and are, if 
such a thing is possible, more immoral 
than the people of the Spanish speak- 
ing countries. The officials of the 
Catholic church are fully aware of the 
state of affairs in South America, and 
have on several occasions publicly de- 
plored the conditions' existing there. 
However, the customs and usages of 
centuries are so firmly rooted here that 
it will doubtless take a long time to 
properly reform the church in South 
America. Various Protestant denomi- 
nations have entered the field, and are 
doing a great work in connection with 
the schools and universities which 
they are founding in the various re- 
publics, but as yet they have no ex- 
tended religious influence with the great 
masses of the people. It would seem 
as though the condition of the Christ- 
ian religion of this continent should 
have the earnest and energetic atten- 
tion of both churches. 

At San Paulo, we boarded what is 
known as the "train de luxe" which is 
run daily over the government railroad 
leaving the San Paulo station at 8 



o'clock at night and arriving in Rio de 
Janeiro at 8 o'clock the next morning. 
We have had the pleasures or misfor- 
tunes of riding on various "trains de 
luxe" in various parts of the world, 
but here, indeed, was a new one on 
us. The cars are constructed without 
vestibules and without springs but the 
inside arrangement is very comfort- 
able. Both sides of the car are divided 
into sections' by means of fixed wood- 
en partitions, and in each section is 
constructed a little bed. In front of 
each section, curtains are arranged 
which can be drawn and fastened to- 
gether, and on the side of the parti- 
tion is a large mirror. When the pas- 
senger draws the curtains, he finds 
himself occupying a little square room 
which has as its furniture a bed, a 
mirror, and the traveler's suit case. 
There are no upper berths and the 
sheets and blankets are laid on the 
end of the bed and the passenger is 
given a little exercise before going to 
sleep by the necessity of making up 
his own bed. In the day time the beds 
are still beds and an extra chair car 
is carried on the end of the train in 
order to supply the passengers with 
some place to sit down. We presumed 
that if the chair car happened to be 
lost off from the train in the night, it 
would be necessary for the passengers 
to "stay in bed all day or else stand 
up. 

After traveling through part of the 
province of San Paulo, with its thou- 
sands of coffee plantations that sup- 
ply the larger part of all of the coffee 
that is consumed in the world, and 
that have made this part of the nation 
rich and prosperous, our train entered 
the Province of Rio de Janeiro, and 
winding its way through the coast 
range of mountains, finally reached the 
extended suburbs of the City of Rio de 
Janeiro, and shortly afterward steam- 
ed into the station located in the cen- 
ter of the capitol of Brazil. 

Rio de Janiero. surrounded on all 
sides by beautiful scenery, its many 
hills decked with clusters of palms, and 
possessing what is probably the finest 
and most picturesque harbor in the 
world, is a place not soon to be forgot- 
ten by the visitor. And this city of a 
million people covering a great amount 
of territory and extending for a long 
ways up the valleys between the sur- 
rounding mountains, was only a short 



48 



time ago dirty, unhealthy, and unat- 
tractive. However, in the course of 
one or two years' time these conditions 
were reversed, and Rio de Janeiro is 
now one of the world's cleanest, 
healthiest, and most beautiful cities. 

A new street or avenue was pro- 
jected straight across the city, the 
land was purchased, the old buildings 
demolished, and the most beautiful 
street in the world, the Avenida Cen- 
tral, was constructed. This wonderful 
thoroughfare is already lined on both 
sides with huge buildings of beautiful 
architecture, and at one end connects 
with the Avenida Botafogo, which sur- 
passes anything we have seen in the 
world. For over four miles this boule- 
vard skirts the harbor, a sea wall be- 



tractions. From the other end of the 
Avenida Central, connection is made 
with another drive on the other side 
of the city. This is what is known as 
the Mangul Canal. On each side of this 
canal there has been constructed a 
road, and on both sides of each of 
these roads have been placed rows of 
giant palm trees, and the effect pro- 
duced is, indeed, attractive to northern 
eyes. Many other streets and avenues 
have been broadened and beautified 
by the administration, and in the cen- 
ter of the city is located a perfectly 
kept up tropical park where peacocks, 
and many peculiar little animals run 
back and forth across the drive. 

On some of the newly constructed 
streets, there have been built theaters. 




BOTAFOGA AVENUE AND CORCOVADO. 



ing constructed on the outer side, and 
the inner side being lined for almost 
the entire distance with beautiful trop- 
ical parking. The boulevard is 1 divided 
into several sections for the accommo- 
dation of ordinary vehicles, automo- 
biles, saddle horses, etc., and the drive 
out and back is one never forgotten, 
involving as it does a continuous 
panorama of extraordinary scenic at- 



government buildings, newspaper of- 
fices, and public institutions that for 
architectural beauty cannot be excell- 
ed in the western hemisphere, but on 
the other hand the authorities did not 
wish to obliterate entirely the old city 
of Rio and so left the busiest business 
district untouched and here among the 
tangle of little narrow streets stand 
the banks and great commercial hous- 



es, and through the center of this dis- 
trict runs' the famous Rua Ouvidor, 
the best shopping street in the city, 
where every conceivable article can be 
purchased, and where all the types of 
Brazilian life are accustomed to meet 
and promenade. 

There are a great many beautiful 
little squares and plazas in Rio as in 
all of these southern cities, and by the 
side of one cf these is located the 
landing place where the passengers 
from incoming ships are landed in 
small boats, for the new harbor works 
are not yet completed and large ships 
are still compelled to anchor in the 
harbor. 

We were considerably interested in 
the Brazilian warships which were 



more important republics. 

The discussion of international pol- 
itics in this part of the world is most 
interesting, and involves not only lo- 
cal conditions and ambitions, but also 
extends to a lively consideration of tho 
aspirations of other foreign powers. 
Of these supposed aspirations, per- 
haps the one most often referred to 
is the reputed desire of Germany for 
a controlling voice in the affairs of 
Brazil, and in many South American 
countries we have been told that the 
United States would some day be com- 
pelled to fight Germany or give up the 
Monroe Doctrine. It is pointed out that 
Germany has recently frightened all 
Europe by her war-like preparations, 
and particularly, by the extraordinary 




MANGUE AVENUE. 



moored just opposite the city, and 
which were very modern in appear- 
ance, the "Minas Geraes" being one of 
the largest battelships in the world. 
Several more huge warships are be- 
ing constructed for Brazil and will 
soon be delivered, and there is much 
speculation in South America as to 
the necessity for the war-like prepar- 
ations on the part of several of the 



enlargement of her navy. 

All of the European nations have 
been asking the question as to what 
plans Germany had in mind that mads 
it necessary to build up such an arma- 
ment. Then, the thickly populated 
condition of Germany is referred to, 
and it is pointed out that the German 
Empire is in need of some other plar-c 
besides German Southwest Africa, to 



50 



send its future surplus population. At 
this stage of the argument, a map of 
the world is produced, and it is shown 
that German colonization on a large 
scale cannot be carried out advan- 
tageously in any part of the world un- 
der existing political conditions unless 
it be in Brazil. Great numbers of 
Germans are already in Brazil, several 
of the richest provinces being virtually 
controlled by them, and it is contend- 
ed that the only thing that stands in 
the way of a great enlargement of 
German influence is the Monroe Doc- 
trine, and it is, of course, claimed that 
the Armanent of Germany is being ac- 
quired for the purpose of knocking the 
Monroe Doctrine into a cocked hat. 
Of course, we have heard this story 
in the United States, and have failed 
to become very much frightened, but 
down here it seems to have made quite 
an impression on a number of people. 
The peculiar thing about it is the fact 
that every time we have heard the 
story we have been able to trace it to 
an English source, and we are re- 
minded of the tactics of the British 
when they were afraid of the Russians. 
At that time they used all of their in- 
genuity to help along the misunder- 
standing between Russia and Japan, 
and their plans certainly met with 
success. Perhaps, now that they fear 
the growing power of Germany they 
are inclined to push forward this 
Brazilian story for a serious misun- 
derstanding between Germany and the 
United States would be a great thing 
for England. 

This continent seems to be an un- 
healthy place for presidents, for Bra- 
zil, like a number of the countries 
through which we have passed, is at 
present without a regularly elected 
president, the late chief executive hav- 
ing died some months ago and the new 
president not having yet been inau- 
gurated. 

The resources of Brazil are distri- 
buted through the republic in zones. 
At the north is the rubber country 
with Para as its chief export city. A 
little further south is the sugar dis- 
trict with Peruambuco as the principal 
port. Next comes the cotton belt 
which has contributed most to the 
building up of Bahia. The entire cen- 
tral zone is devoted to coffee and has 
as its most important places, Rio de 
Janeiro, San Paulo, and Santos. The 



great southern section Is given up to 
cattle raising and general agriculture, 
and Porto Alegre in the province of 
Rio Grande do Sul, is the most im- 
portant export point. These zones and 
their cities are dependent for then- 
prosperity entirely on their respective 
crops, and a crop failure means wide- 
spread suffering throughout the zone 
where it occurs. 

The dependence upon a single crop 
is so great that the coffee zone was 
threatened with bankruptcy a few 
years ago, when the annual crop was 
twice as large as usual. This great 
production of coffee threatened to 
flood the markets and break the price 
of coffee so severely as to produce 
disaster to all of the growers. 

The state of San Paulo floated a 
bond issue, a part of which was taken 
in the United States, and with the 
proceeds bought up half of the crop 
and stored it. A small amount is sold 
each year and some of the bonds are 
paid off, and in this way the abnormal 
crop was handled so as to prevent a 
break in the price of coffee. 

In addition to these main products 
of the soil, there are the famous Bra- 
zilian diamond mines, and all through 
the interior there exists untold wealth 
in the shape of mineral deposits of all 
kinds, a very small proportion of which 
has yet been prospected. Iron ore 
abounds in tremendous masses in 
many places, but it is not being work- 
ed as yet nor are manufacturing indus- 
tries being developed with the excep- 
tion of a few undertakings. 

Brazil is certainly a wonderful coun- 
try of such large proportions as to be 
unwieldly at the present time from a 
governmental standpoint, but possess- 
ing great trade opportunities and ex- 
tending much friendship to Americans 
and it is now perfectly safe for trav- 
elers to visit all parts of the 
country with the exception of the city 
of Para and the Amazon Valley, where 
yellow fever and other diseases have 
not yet been entirely stamped out. It 
seems certain that Americans as soon 
as they come to know the true condi- 
tions in Brazil will visit in increasing 
numbers this, the largest of the South 
American republics. 

After having been in South Amer- 
ica for so many weeks and having 
come to know the people somewhat, it 
is almost with a feeling of regret that 



51 



we are boarding- the steamer at Rio could for our comfort and enjoyment, 
bound for the Cape Verde Islands off and treated us much like long lost 
the west coast of Africa and from brothers. We are leaving South Araer- 
there for Lisbon, Portugal. ica with memories of many pleasant 
The hospitality and kindness of the hours', with great respect for the won- 
people of all of the South American derful accomplishments of these re- 
cities we have visited has been very publics to the south, and with a full 
noticeable, and at every place we realization of the unbounded oppor- 
have stopped they have entertained us tunities that exist in this least known 
at the clubs, done everything they of the continents. 



H 



15 1910 



e copy del. to Cat. Div. 
3A85. . 6 Wtl 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




015 811 380 6 




